h terraces, &c. So that Nature had greatly the
advantage in those days, when what has been called English gardening was
unheard of. This is now beginning to be perceived, and we are setting
out to travel backwards. Painters and poets have had the credit of being
reckoned the fathers of English gardening; they will also have,
hereafter, the better praise of being fathers of a better taste. Error
is in general nothing more than getting hold of good things, as every
thing has two handles, by the wrong one. It was a misconception of the
meaning and principles of poets and painters which gave countenance to
the modern system of gardening, which is now, I hope, on the decline; in
other words, we are submitting to the rule which you at present are
guided by, that of having our houses belong to the country, which will
of course lead us back to the simplicity of Nature. And leaving your own
individual sentiments and present work out of the question, what good
can come of any other guide, under any circumstances? We have, indeed,
distinctions of rank, hereditary legislators, and large landed
proprietors; but from numberless causes the state of society is so much
altered, that nothing of that lofty or imposing interest, formerly
attached to large property in land, can now exist; none of the poetic
pride, and pomp, and circumstance; nor anything that can be considered
as making amends for violation done to the holiness of Nature. Let us
take an extreme case, such as a residence of a Duke of Norfolk, or
Northumberland: of course you would expect a mansion, in some degree
answerable to their consequence, with all conveniences. The names of
Howard and Percy will always stand high in the regards of Englishmen;
but it is degrading, not only to such families as these, but to every
really interesting one, to suppose that their importance will be most
felt where most displayed, particularly in the way I am now alluding to.
This is contracting a general feeling into a local one. Besides, were it
not so, as to what concerns the Past, a man would be sadly astray, who
should go, for example, to modernise Alnwick and its dependencies, with
his head full of the ancient Percies: he would find nothing there which
would remind him of them, except by contrast; and of that kind of
admonition he would, indeed, have enough. But this by the bye, for it is
against the principle itself I am contending, and not the misapplication
of it. After what was said a