The open field, and where the unpierc'd fhade A In the manner of planting a wood or thicket, much art may be difplay'd. As common centre of walks, termed a ftar, from whence are feen a number of remarkable objects, appears too artificial to be as greeable. The crowding withal so many objects together, leffens the pleasure that would, be felt in a flower fucceffion. bandoning therefore the ftar, being stiff and formal, let us try to fubftitute fome form more natural, that will lay open all the remarkable objects in the neighbourhood. This may be done by openings in the wood at various distances, which, in walking, bring fucceffively under the eye every object as by accident. Some openings difplay single objects, fome a plurality in a line, and fome a rapid fucceffion of them. In this plan, the mind at intervals is roused and cheared by agreeable objects; and the scene is greatly heightened by the surprise it occasions when we stumble, Q92 as as it were, upon objects of which we had no expectation. A As gardening is not an inventive art, but an imitation of nature, or rather nature itfelf ornamented; it follows neceffarily, that every thing unnatural ought to be rejected with difdain. Statues of wild beafts vomiting water, a common ornament in gardens, prevails in thofe of Verfailles. Is this or nament in a good tafte? A jet d'eau, being purely artificial, may, without difguft, be tortured into a thoufand fhapes: but a reprefentation of what really exifts in nature, admits not any unnatural circumstance. Thefe ftatues therefore in the gardens of Verfailles must be condemned: and yet fo infenfible has the artist been to just imitation, as to have difplay'd his vicious taste without the leaft colour or difguife. A lifelefs ftatue of an animal pouring out water, may be endured without much difguft. But here the lions and wolves are put in violent action: each has feized its prey, a deer or a lamb, in act to devour. And yet, instead of extended claws and open mouth, the whole, as by a hocus-pocus trick, is con verted into a different fcene; the lion, forgetting his prey, pours out water plentifully; and the deer, forgetting its danger, performs, the fame operation; a reprefentation not lefs abfurd than that in the opera, where Alexander the Great, after mounting the wall of a town befieged, turns about and entertains his army with a fong. Ingardening, every lively exhibition of what is beautiful in nature has a fine effect on the other hand, diftant and faint imitations are difpleafing to every one of taste. The cutting evergreens in the fhape of animals, is a very ancient prac tice; as appears from the epiftles of Pliny, who feems to be a great admirer of this puerile conceit. The propenfity to imitation gave birth to this practice; and has fupported it wonderfully long, confidering how faint and infipid the imitation is. But the vulgar, great and small, devoid of tafte, are entertained with the oddness and fingularity of a refemblance, however diftant, betwixt a tree and an animal. An attempt, in the gardens of Verfailles, to imi tate tate a grove of trees by a group of jets d'eau, appears, for the fame reafon, not lefs ridiculous. 1 In laying out a garden, every thing trivial or whimsical ought to be avoided. Is a labyrinth then to be juftified? It is cat mere conceit, like that of compofing verfes in the fhape of an axe or an egg. The walks and hedges may be agreeable; but in the form of a labyrinth, they serve to no end but to puzzle. A riddle is a conceit not fo mean; because the solution is a proof of fagacity, which affords no aid in tracing a labyrinth. The gardens of Verfailles, executed with infinite expence by men at that time in high repute, are a lafting monument of a taste the most vicious and depraved. The faults above mentioned, instead of being avoided, are chofen as beauties, and multiplied without end. Nature, it would seem, was deemed too vulgar to be imitated in the works of a magnificent monarch; and for that reafon preference was given to things unnatural, which probably were mistaken for fupernatural. I have often a mufed T mufed myself with a fanciful refemblance betwixt these gardens and the Arabian tales. Each of them is a performance intended for the amusement of a great king: in the fixteen gardens of Verfailles there is no unity of design, more than in the thoufand and one Arabian tales: and, laftly, they are equally unnatural; groves of jets d'eau, ftatues of animals converfing in the manner of Æsop, water iffuing out of the mouths of wild beasts, give an impreffion of fairy-land and witchcraft, not less than diamond-palaces, invifible rings, fpells and incantations. Aftraight road is the most agreeable, because it shortens the journey. But in an embellished field, a straight walk has an air of stiffness and confinement: and at any rate is lefs agreeable than a winding or waving walk; for in furveying the beauties of a fine field, we love to roam from place to place at freedom. Winding walks have an-, other advantage: at every step they open new views. In fhort, the walks in a field intended for entertainment, ought not to have any appearance of a road. My inten tion |