Such is our opinion of the capacities of landscape gar dening. If it is lower than that of authors and artists, twe can only say, that it has been formed from the observa tion and experience of what actually takes place. The ar tist may and ought to aim at the highest degree of beauty, which his own imagination, the genius of the place, and the views of the owner will admit of ; but let him not pro ceed with, or hold out to the world, mistaken views of what his art can-and cannot perform.
From this view of the powers of art, it will be sufficient ly obvious, that with Price, Girardin, Knight, and other au thors, we consider the principles of painting to be those of landscape gardening, in that view of this term which limits it to 4 4 the art of creating landscapes of picturesque beau ty ;" and in viewing it as adding to picturesque beauty, some other natural expression, as of grandeur, decay, me lancholy, Etc. we consider it, with Pope, Wanton, Gray, and Eustace, as requiring the aid of poetic mind ; that is, of a mind conversant in all these different emotions, or pleasures of imagination, which are called up by certain signs of af fecting. or interesting qualities, furnished by sounds, mo tion, buildings, and other objects.
If, taking a third view of landscape gardening, as " the art of laying out the grounds of a country residence," then, with popular opinion, we comprehend under the term all the above beauties, with those of relative beauty, the prin ciples of which have been the subject of the preceding sec. tion.
The principles of landscape gardening then, as an imita tive art, we conclude to be derived from nature.
1. As developed by the principles of landscape painting; and, 2. As recognised by poetic mind, or a mind alive to those general beauties or associations universally felt.
We considr this, perhaps to many, a tedious develope meld of the principles of landscape gardening, called for by the vague and indefinite manner in which they are spo ken of by authors, no less than by artists; and, as a proof of this, we refer our readers to the volumes of Mr. Repton, of whose practical taste, in many instances, we highly ap prove. 1 We shall attempt, as a proof of our theory, a slight ana lysis of the principles of a composition expressive of pic turesque and natural beauty. For this purpose it is a mat ter of indifference, as far as respects picturesque beauty, whether we choose a real or painted landscape ; but, as we mean also to investigate its poetic, or general beauty, we shall prefer a reality. We choose then a perfect flat, varied
by wood, say elms, with a piece of water, and a high wall, forming the angle of a ruined building ; it is animated by cows and sheep ; its expression is that of melancholy gran deur; and, independently of this beauty, it is picturesque, that is, if painted it would form a tolerable picture.
1. The first obvious principle which pervades this, or any beautiful or expressive view, is a certain degree of uni ty in its expression. No ideas of gaiety or prettiness are excited by this scene. All the parts unite in forming a whole, which the eye can comprehend at once, and examine without distraction. " La vue," says M. Girardin," Ye plus vagabond de tons lessens, a besoin d'etre fixee pour jouir avec plaisir et sans lassitude." Were this principle not prevalent, the groups of trees, the lake, and the building, would only please when considered separately, and the re sult would be as poor a production as a machine, the wheels of which are accurately finished, and nicely polish ed, but which do not act in concert so as to effect the in tended movement 2. It is true to nature ; that is, the objects or materials are what they appear to be. The trees (whiih are neither very old, nor very young), though in the distance diminish ed by their remote situation, we discover, by their trunks and contour, to be still trees. They are not shrubs placed near the eye, with a view to produce a false perspective ; nor is the fragment of building merely a disguised wall, because it has openings which have once been windows, and is crowned in one part by battlements. The water is natural, its surface being below the level of the adjoining ground, not raised above it, as is often the case in artifi cial waters. This completes the truth or reality of the scene.
The necessity of adhering to truth is still greater in painting, in which all objects must appear to be natural, not only in forms and colour, but also relatively to the. forms and colours around them. Objects, especially those whose forms and dimensions are familiar to us, as men or horses, painted of different heights in the same plane, as for example, in the distance, of the magnitude they appear in the foreground, would, from the acquired habit of mea suring unknown by known objects, give a falsehood to the scene, and appear as animals of a different species, or as. monsters.