Note 104 — English Authors on Gardening. (continued 3)

In p. 130 and 179 of vol. ii. he thus adverts to the effects of the levelling system of Launcelot Browne:—"From this influence of fashion, and the particular influence of Mr. Browne, models of old gardens are in this country still scarcer in nature than in painting; and therefore what good parts there may be in such gardens, whether proceeding from original design, or from the changes produced by time and accident, can no longer be observed; and yet, from these specimens of ancient art, however they may be condemned as old fashioned, many hints might certainly be taken, and blended with such modern improvements as really deserve the name."—"Were my arguments in favour of many parts of the old style of gardening ever so convincing, the most I could hope from them at present, would be, to produce some caution; and to assist in preserving some of the few remains of old magnificence that still exist, by making the owner less ready to listen to a professor, whose interest it is to recommend total demolition." Mr. R. P. Knight, in a note to his landscape, thus remarks on this subject: "I remember a country clock-maker, who being employed to clean a more complex machine than he had been accustomed to, very confidently took it to pieces; but finding, when he came to put it together again, some wheels of which he could not discover the use, very discreetly carried them off in his pocket. The simple artifice of this prudent mechanic, always recurs to my mind, when I observe the manner in which our modern improvers repair and embellish old places; not knowing how to employ the terraces, mounds, avenues, and other features which they find there, they take them all away, and cover the places which they occupied with turf. It is a short and easy method of proceeding; and if their employers will be satisfied with it, they are not to be blamed for persevering in it, as it may be executed by proxy, as well as in person."

Severely (and no doubt justly), as the too generally smooth and monotonous system of Mr. Browne has been condemned, yet he must have had great merit to have obtained the many encomiums he did obtain from some of our first nobility and gentry. The evil which he did in many of their altered pleasure-grounds, lives after him—the good is oft interred in his grave.