OF TDB :MATERIALS OF GARDENING.
style of gardening we adopt, the materials with which we work, in order to obtain the desired effect, are the same. Those of nature arc, ground, wood, water, and rocks ; to these, art has added buildings ; roads, walks, fences, and animated or moving objects, sounds, 3.7.c. may be considered as accompaniments.
The operations of art on this ponderous material arc ne cessarily of a very limited description. The most exten sive and costly operations, to restore or create natural sur faces, even w hen attended with the desired effect, afford less gratification to personal feeling than most other improve ments. If a large space, naturally or artificially deformed, has been restored to natural beauty, we are delighted with the effect, whilst we recollect the difference between the present and the former surface ; but when this is forgotten, though the beauty remains, the credit for having produced it is lost. In this respect, the operations on ground under the ancient style have a great and striking advantage; for an absolute pet fection is to be attained in the formation of geometrical forms, and the beauty created is so entirely ar tificial, as never to admit a doubt of its origin. Long, there fore, after the improvement is finished, the credit and the beauty remain, to gratify and charm the owner. Improve ments on surfaces, whatever be their object, ought to be made in scenes which are near the eye, or intended to be frequently seen ; at a distance they arc lost, if the effect be on a small scale, and often better effected by wood, if on one of considerable magnitude. All operations on ground may he included under, 1. Those which have for their ob ject the beauty of art or design ; and 2. Those where natu ral beauty is intended to be produced.
1. Operations with a view to relative or artificial beauty.— The forms in use for this purpose are few and simple. They originate in and are influenced by those of the house ; and are, for the greater part, bounded by right lines ; and the surfaces are levels or slopes of different degrees of abruptness. The magnitude as well as form of each of the figures in the ground immediately adjoining a house, or in a detached wailed enclosure, should be regulated chiefly by the magnitude of the mansion, or extent and grandeur of the whole place, though they are often obliged to conform, in some degree, to the natural surface. When the ground
slopes from the house in all directions, narrow parallelo grams will be the prevailing forms both of the levels and slopes, the broadest level, and greatest perpendicular depth of slope, being placed next the house, and the next broad est level, Sec. in succession, till, after three or four levels, and as many slopes are obtained, the artificial surface shall finally blend with the natural, unless, as is frequently the case in the geometric style, a kitchen garden, or some similar scene of art, is joined to it. In this case, separation by some architectural or other accompaniment, will, by forming a break in the order of forms, admit of adopting, in continuation of the artificial surface, such levels and slopes as the character of the scene may require, or a due regard to economy dictate. When the mansion, or scene of operations, is on a surface naturally flat, the levels will be of greater dimensions, the slopes smaller, and both forms fewer in number. But though parallelograms are the common figures employed, sections of polygons, trape ziums, circles, and curvilinear figures, are frequently ad mitted. They are used in architectural elevations, and in fortifications, which arc the prototypes of this part of an cient gardening ; and, therefore, when apparent in the man sion, should be reflected, as it were, by the grounds.
The forms to be used, however, is a matte' easy to deter mine. The principal difficulty is to arrange them together, so that they may concur in producing a whole or a good ef fect. In disposing, connecting, relating, and contrasting them for this purpose, the artist will preserve regularity and uniformity in the complex view of the whole, varying and harmonizing the detail according to the degree of beau ty and variety he intends to produce. If he has duly prepared his mind by theoretical studies, and practised architectural and landscape drawing, his own feelings will suggest when he has attained the desired effect ; for the models of artificial surfaces, which remain of ancient gar dens, are poor productions compared to what might be created ill this way, through the judicious application of the principles of relative beauty. See Terrace, in the suc ceeding chapter.