It is allowed on all sides, that Addison (who had many years afterwards a small retirement at Bilton, near Rugby, laid it out in what may be called a rural style, and which still exists, with very little alteration besides that of time.) and Pope " prepared for the new art of gardening the firm basis of philosophical principles." Pope attacked the ver dant sculpture, and formal groves of the ancient style, with the keenest shafts of ridicule ; and in his epistle to Lot d Burlington, laid down the justcst principles of art—the study of nature, of the genius of the place, and never to lose sight of good sense. In so far as was practicable on a spot of little more than two acres, Pope practised what he wrote ; and his well known garden at To ickenham con tained, so early as 1716, some highly picturesque and natural-like scenery, accurately described by various co temporary writers. (See Beauties of England and [rates.) But it was reserved for Kent, the friend of Lord Burling ton, to carry Pope's ideas more extensive'• into execution. It was reserved for him, says Dailies Barrington, " to the beautiful descriptions of the poets, for which he was peculiarly adapted, by being a painter ; as the true test of perfection in modern gardening is, that a landscape painter would choose it for a composition." Bridgeman, the fashionable designer of gardens previously to Kent, Lord Walpole copjectures to have been " struck and re formed" by the Guardian, No. 173. Ile banished verdant sculpture, and introduced morsels of a forest appearance in the gardens at Richmond ; " but not till other innovators had broke loose from rigid symmetry." The capital stroke was, the destruction of walls for boundaries, and the intro duction of ha-hat—the harmony of the lawn with the park followed. Kent appeared at this moment, and saw that all nature was a garden; " painter enough to taste the charms of landscape, bold and opinionative enough to dare, and to dictate, and bout with a genius to strike out a great sys tem, from the twilight of imperfect essays, he realized the compositions of the greatest masters in painting." " Kent," continues his lordship," was neither without assistance nor without faults. Pope contributed to form his taste; and the gaidens at Carleton House were probably borrowed from the pia is at Twickenham." The valions deviations from rigid uniformity, or, more correctly, the various attempts to succeed in the Chinese manlier, appear thus to have taken a new and decisive character under the guidance of Kent, a circumstance, in our opinion, entirely owing to his having the ideas of a painter ; fur no mere gardener, occupied in imitating the Chinese, or even Italian mariner, would ever have thought of studying to produce picturesque effect. Picturesque beauty, indeed, we consider to have been but little recog nised in this country, excepting by painters, previously to the time of Pope, win) was both a in.inter and a poet. The continued approbation of the modern sty le. as purified from the Chinese absurdities, originally more or less introduced with it, and continued in many places long after Kent's time, we consider to be chiefly owing to the circumstance of the study of drawing- and landscape painting having be come a part of the gm.eral system of education : and thus, as Mr. Alison observes, our taste for natural beauty was awakened ; " the power of simple nature was felt and ac knowledged, and the removal of the articles of acquired expression, led men only more strongly to attend to the natural expression of scenery, and to study the means by which it might be maintained or improved." Kent was born in Yorkshire, and apprenticed to a coach painter in 1719. He soon afterwards came to London, dis covered a genius for painting, was sent to Italy, patronised there by Lord Burlington, returned with his lordship, and lived with him in Burlington Ilouse till 1743, when he died, at the age of 63 years. On his first return, he was chiefly employed to paint historical subjects and ceilings, and the Hall at Stowe is from his pencil. Soon afterwards he was employed as an architect, and lastly as a landscape garden en It is not known where he first exercised his genius as a layer out of grounds ; probably at Claremont and Esher, two of his designs, both minutely described by Wheatley, and, judging from the age of the trees, laid out some time betweeh 1725 and 1735. Kent was also employed at Ken sington gardens, where he is said to have introduced parts of dead trees, to heighten the allusion to natural woods.
Mason, the poet, mentions Kent's Elysian scenes in the highest style of panegyric, and observes in a note, that he prided himself in shading with evergreens in his inure finished pieces, in the manner described it, the 14th and 15th sections of Wheatley's Observations.
Claremont has been celebrated by Garth, and Esher by Warton, (in the Enthusiast, or Lover of .Vuture, 1740 0 and Mr. Walpole, with the authority of an eye-witness, has rely accurately delineated Kent's manner of realizing land scapes ; and has expatiated on his merits, without conceal ing his few demerits in his profession. " According to my own idea," adds Mr. G. Mason, " all that has since been done by the most deservedly admired designers, by South cote, Hamilton, L} ttleton, Pitt, Shenstone, Morris, for them selves, and by Wright for others, all that has been writ ten on the subject, even the gardening didactic poem, and the didactic essay on the picturesque, have proceeded from Kent. Had Kent never exterminated the bounds of regula rity, never actually traversed the way to freedom of man ner, would any of these celebrated artists have found it of themselves ? Theoretical hints from the highest autho rities, had evidently long existed without sufficient effect. And had not these great master's actually executed, what Kent's example first inspired them with the design of exe cuting, would the subsequent writers on gardening have been enabled to collect materials for precepts, or stores for their imaginations ?" P. 112.
Lord Cobham seems to have been occupied in re-model ling the grounds at Stowe, about the same time that Pope was laying out his gardens at Twickenham. His lordship began these improvements in 1714, employing Bridgeman, whose plans and views for altering old Stowe from the most rigid character of the ancient style to a more open and irregular design, are still in existence. Kent was em ployed a few years afterwards, first to paint the hall, and afterwards in the double capacity ofarchitect and landscape gardener ; and the finest buildings and scenes there are his creation. The character of Stowe is Iv ell known : Nature has done little ; but art has created a number of magnificent buildings, by which it has been attempted to give a sort of emblematic character to scenes of little or no natural expression. The result is unique ; but more, as expressed by Pope, " a work to wonder at," than one to chsrm the imagination. The friends of Lord Cobham seem to have considered Kent as the first who exhibited the new style to his country, if we may judge from the concluding lines of an epitaph to his memory, placed in the garden, Southcote is supposed to hare been one of the first to follow the new system struck out by Kent, by improving his own domain at Woburn, in Surrey. He possessed a genius, in many respects well suited to the purpose, says Mr. G. Mason ; but was rather too lavish of his flowery decorations. The extent of the grounds was one hundred and fifty acres ; thirty-five of which were ornamented to the highest degree, two-thirds of the remainder were in pasture, on rising grounds, and the rest in tillage. The decorations consisted in having a broad margin of shrub bery, and gravel walk, to almost every fence, but varied by difference of style, views, buildings, &c. It is minutely described in Wheatley's Observations, as an example of an ornamented farm. Mr. G. Mason thinks the decorated strip often too narrow, and sometimes offensive, from the impossibility of concealing the fence. To this bordering walk, he thinks, may probably be attributed the introduc tion of the belt. His remarks refer to the year 1768. In 1803, it had repeatedly changed proprietors, and scarcely a vestige remained, to distinguish it from a common farm.
Pains Hill, the creation of Hamilton, is supposed-to have been one of the next specimens exhibited of the modern style. Hamilton was originally a gardener ; but is said to have studied pictures, with a view to the improvement of scenery. He purchased seats, and improved them for public sale. Pains Hill, which was his own residence, is a small park, surrounded on three sides by garden and pic turesque scenery. Excepting from the house, there is no distant prospect ; but the grounds being considerably un dulated, the views from the walks across the park have some variety, and are always agreeable. This place is one of the few, described by Wheatley, which is still in perfect preservation.