The English Garden was published in four different books, the first of which appeared in 1772. With the ex ception of the fourth book, it was received with very great applause. The precepts for planting are particularly in structive. On the whole, the work may be classed with the " Observations" of Wheatley ; and these two books may be said to exhibit a clear view of the modern style, as first introduced and followed by liberal and cultivated minds ; whilst the Dissertation on Oriental Gardening," by Sir William Chambers, published in 1772, holds up to ri ridicule the absurd imitations of uncultivated amateurs and professors, who had no other qualifications than those ac quired in labouring with the spade under some celebrated ground worker.
We shall now proceed to notice the principal professors to which the demand for the new style gave rise ; and by whom it was, in a short time, extended over the whole country ; not indeed in so chaste, varied, and original a taste, as is exhibited in the places and publications we have enumerated, but according to their different degrees of ta lent for imitating what, with one or two exceptions, it does not appear they understood.
The first of these is Wright, who seems to have been in some repute at the time of Kent's death. His birth and education, Mr. G. Mason informs us, " were above ple beian ; he understood drawing, and sketched plans of his designs ; but never contracted for work, which might oc casion his not being applied to by those who consider no thing so much as having trouble taken off their hands." At Becket, the seat of Lord Barrington, he produced an ad mired effect on a lawn ; and at Stoke, near Bristol, he is supposed decorated a copse wood with roses, in the manner advised in the fourth book of the English Garden. He also designed the terrace walk and river at Oatlands, both deservedly admired; the latter being not unfrequently mistaken for the Thames itself.
The next professor, in the order of time, is the cele brated Mr. Brown. lie was bred a kitchen gardener, at a small place near Woodstock, in Oxfordshire ; and was afterwards head gardener at Stowe till 1750. He was con fined (see Beauties cf England and Wales, Bucks,) to the kitchen garden, by Lord Cobh tm, win), however, afterwards recommen dedhim to the Duke of Grafton at Wakefield Lodge, Northamptonshire, where he directed tne forma tion of a large lake, which laid the foundation of his fame and fortune. Lord Cobham afterwards procured fur him the situation of royal gardener at Hampton Court and Windsor. He now attained the summit of his popularity. The fashion of employing him continued, says Mr. G. Ma son, not only to 1768. but to the time of his cb:atii, many years afterwards. Mr. Repton has given a list of his prin cipal works, among which Croome and Fisherwick are the two largest new places which he formed, including at Croome the mansion and offices, as well as the grounds. The places he altered are beyond all reckoning. Improve ment was the passion of the day ; and there was scarcely a country gentleman, who did not, on some occasion or other, consult the royal gardener. Mason, the poet, praises this artist, and Lord Walpole apologises for not praising him. llaines Barrington says, " Kent bath been succeed
ed by Brown, who hash undoubtedly great merit in laying out pleasure grounds ; hut I conceive that, in some of his plans, I see rather traces of the kitchen gardener of old Stowe, than of Poussin or Claude Lorrain. I could wish therefore that Gainsborough gave the design, and that Brown executed." The works and memory of Brown have been severely attacked by Mr. Knight and Mr. Price, and strenuously defended by Mr. Repton, who styles him his great self-taught predecessor. " Brown," observes Mr. G. Mason, " always appeared to myself in the light of an egregious mannerist ; who, from having acquired a faci lity in shaping surfaces, grew fund of exhibiting that ta lent, without due regard to nature, and left marks of his intrusion wherever he went. His new plantations were ge nerally void of genius, taste, and propriety ; but I have seen instances of his managing old ones much better. He made a view to Cheney's church, from Latimer, (Bucks) as na tural and picturesque as can well be imagined. Yet, at the sum place, he had stuffed a very narrow vale, by the side of an artificial river, with these crowded circular clumps of firs alone, that Mr. Price attributes to him. The incon gruity of this plan struck most of the neighbouring gentle men, but was defended by the artist himself, tinder shelter of the epithet playful—totally misapplied." (Essay on De sign, p. 130, 2d edit. 1795.) That Brown must have possessed considerable talents, the extent of his reputation abundantly proves; but that he was imbued with much of that taste for picturesque beauty, which distinguished the works of Kent, Hamilton, and Shenstone, we think, will hardly be asserted by any one who has observed attentively such places as are known to be his creations. Whatever be the extent or character of the surface, they are all surrounded by a narrow belt, and the space within is distinguished by numbers around or oval clumps, and a reach cr two of a tame river on dif ferent levels. This description, in short, will apply to al most every place in Britain laid out from the time (about 1740) when the passion commenced for new modelling country seats, to about 1785 or 1790, when it in a great measure ceased. The leading outline of this plan of im provement was easily recollected, and easily applied ; the great demand produced abundance of artists ; and the ge neral appearance of the country so rapidly changed under their operations, that in 1772, Sir William Chambers de clared, that if the mania were not checked, in a few years longer there would not be found three trees in a line from the Land's End to the Tweed. Brown, it is said, never went out of England, but he sent pupils and plans to Scot land and Ireland ; and Paulowsky, a seat of the late Em peror Paul, near Petersburgh, is said to be from his de sign. Potemkin's gardener, Gould, was also one of his pupils. Brown, as far as we have learned, could not draw, but had assistants, who made out plans of what he in tended. He generally contracted for the execution of the work.