and principles of Landscape Painting to Landscape Gardening.
Intended as a supplement to the Essays. To which is prefixed Mr.
Repton's Letter to Mr. Price. Lond. 1795, 8vo. Second edition,
_Hereford_, 1798, 8vo. This is a sportive display of pleasant wit,
polished learning, and deep admiration of the great landscape
painters. Keen as some of his pages are, and lamenting that there
should have been any controversy ("or tilting at each other's
breasts,") on the subject of Launcelot Browne's works, "I trust,
(says he,) however, that my friends will vouch for me, that
whatever sharpness there may be in my style, there is no rancour in
my heart." Mr. Repton in his Enquiry into the Changes of Landscape
Gardening, acknowledges "the elegant and gentleman-like manner in
which Mr. Price has examined my opinions." Indeed, many pages in
this present letter shew this.
3. A Dialogue on the distinct Characters of the Picturesque and the
Beautiful, in answer to the objections of Mr. Knight, 1801,
8vo.[102]
A general review of Sir Uvedale's ideas on this subject, is candidly
given by Mr. Loudon at p. 78 of his Encyclop. after a mature study of
_all_ the modern writers who have endeavoured to form "a taste for the
harmony and connection of natural scenery." Mr. Loudon farther calls him
"the great reformer of landscape gardening."
We have to regret, that though so many springs must have cheered the
long life of Sir Uvedale Price, (and which he calls the _dolce prima
vera, gioventu dell'anno_, and whose blossoms, flowers, and
"profusion of fresh, gay, and beautiful colours and sweets," he so
warmly dwelt on in many of his pages,) and though the number of these
springs must have nearly equalled those which gilded the days of Lord
Kames, of the honourable Horace Walpole, of Mr. Gilpin, and of Joseph
Cradock, Esq. yet we have to regret that his classic pen has presented
to the public no other efforts of his genius and cultivated taste, than
the few respectable ones above stated. Had he chose to have indulged his
own powers in describing what has been done towards "embellishing the
face of this noble kingdom," (to quote his own words,) we might have
perused descriptive pages equal to his own critical and refined review
of Blenheim, or of Powis Castle, and of a character as high and pure, as
those of Thomas Whateley. In proof of this, we need only refer to many
pages in his Essays,--not only when he so well paints the charms of
sequestered nature, whether in its deep recesses, _o'er canopied with
luscious eglantine_,--in the "modest and retired character of a
brook,"--the rural simplicity of a cottage, with its lilacs and fruit
trees, its rustic porch, covered with vine or ivy, but when he dwells on
the ruins and on "the religious calm" of our abbeys,[103] or on our old
mansion-houses, with their terraces, their summer-houses covered with
ivy, and mixed with wild vegetation. And we need farther only to refer
to those feeling pages in his second volume, where he laments that his
own youth and inexperience should (in order to follow the silly folly of
_being in the fashion_,) have doomed to sudden and total destruction an
old paternal garden, with all its embellishments, and whose destruction
revives in these pages all the emotions of his youth; and he concludes
these pages of regret, by candidly confessing, that he gained little but
"much difficulty, expence and dirt," and that he thus detains his
readers in relating what so personally concerns himself, "because there
is nothing so useful to others, however humiliating to ourselves, as
the frank confession of our errors and of their causes. No man can
equally with the person who committed them, impress upon others the
extent of the mischief done, and the regret that follows it." It is
painful to quit pages so interesting as those that immediately follow
this quotation.[104]
There are few objects that the enlightened mind of Sir Uvedale has not
remarked. Take the following as an instance:
"Nothing is so captivating, or seems so much to accord with our ideas of
beauty, as the smiles of a beautiful countenance; yet they have
sometimes a striking mixture of the other character. Of this kind are
those smiles which break out suddenly from a serious, sometimes from
almost a severe countenance, and which, when that gleam is over, leave
no trace of it behind--
_Brief as the lightning in the collied night,
That in a spleen unfolds both heaven and earth,
And e'er a man has time to say, behold!
The jaws of darkness do devour it up._
There is another smile, which seems in the same degree to accord with
the ideas of beauty only: it is that smile which proceeds from a mind
full of sweetness and sensibility, and which, when it is over, still
leaves on the countenance its mild and amiable impression; as after the
sun is set, the mild glow of his rays is still diffused over every
object. This smile, with the glow that accompanies it, is beautifully
painted by Milton, as most becoming an inhabitant of heaven:
To whom the angel, with a smile that glow'd
Celestial rosy red, love's proper hue,
Thus answered."
The great object in the above Essays, is to improve the laying out of
grounds by studying the productions "of those great artists _who have
most diligently studied the beauties of nature_. On this subject he has
in these volumes poured forth the effusions of his richly gifted mind,
in his contemplation of the works of those really great painters, whose
landscape scenery, from the most rural to the grandest, "have been
consecrated by long uninterrupted admiration." Instead of the narrow,
mechanical practice of a few English gardeners, or layers-out of
grounds, he wishes "the noble and varied works of the eminent painters
of every age, and of every country, and those of _their_ supreme
mistress NATURE, should be the great models of imitation."[105] He has
supported many of his opinions or observations, or embellished or
enlivened them, by acute allusions, not only to Milton but to
Shakspeare, whom he calls "that most original creator, and most accurate
observer."[106]
He has depicted his own mind in p. 378 of the first volume of his
Essays; for after lamenting that despotic system of improvement which
demands all to be laid open,--all that obstructs to be levelled to the
ground,--houses, orchards, gardens, all swept away,--nothing tending to
humanize the mind--and that a despot thinks every person an intruder who
enters his domain, wishing to destroy cottages and pathways, and to
reign alone, he thus proceeds:--"Here I cannot resist paying a tribute
to the memory of a beloved uncle, and recording a benevolence towards
all the inhabitants around him, that struck me from my earliest
remembrance; and it is an impression I wish always to cherish. It seemed
as if he had made his extensive walks as much for them as for himself;
they used them as freely, and their enjoyment was his. The village bore
as strong marks of his and of his brother's attentions (for in that
respect they appeared to have but one mind), to the comforts and
pleasures of its inhabitants. Such attentive kindnesses, are amply
repaid by affectionate regard and reverence; and were they general
throughout the kingdom, they would do much more towards guarding us
against democratical opinions
_Than twenty thousand soldiers, arm'd in proof._
The cheerfulness of the scene I have mentioned, and all the interesting
circumstances attending it, (so different from those of solitary
grandeur,) have convinced me, that he who destroys dwellings, gardens
and inclosures, for the sake of mere extent, and parade of property,
only extends the bounds of monotony, and of dreary, selfish pride; but
contrasts those of vanity, amusement and humanity."
One may trace, too, his feeling mind towards the conclusion of his
second volume, where, after many pleasing pages on the rural scenery of
cottages, and in hamlets and villages, ("where a lover of humanity may
find so many sources of amusement and interest,") and on the means of
embellishing them, "I could wish (says he) to turn the minds of
improvers from too much attachment to solitary parade, towards objects
more connected with general habitation and embellishment; ... and it may
be truly said, that there is no way in which wealth can produce such
natural unaffected variety, and such interest, as by adorning a real
village, and promoting the comforts and enjoyments of its inhabitants.
_Goldsmith_ has most feelingly described (more, I trust, from the warmth
of a poetical imagination and quick sensibility than from real fact),
the ravages of wealthy pride. My aim is to shew, that they are no less
hostile to real taste, than to humanity; and should I succeed, it is
possible that those, whom all the affecting images and pathetic touches
of Goldsmith would not have restrained from destroying a village, may
even be induced to build one, in order to shew their taste in the
decoration and disposition of village-houses and cottages." After many
traces of village scenery, he thus proceeds: "The church, together with
the church-yard, is, on various accounts, an interesting object to the
villagers of every age and disposition; to the old and serious, as a
spot consecrated to the purposes of religion, where the living christian
performs his devotions, and where, after his death, his body is
deposited near those of his ancestors and departed friends, and
relations: to the young and thoughtless, as a place where, on the day of
rest from labour, they meet each other in their holiday clothes; and
also (what forms a singular contrast with tombs and grave-stones), as
the place which at their wakes, is the chief scene of their gaiety and
rural sports." After speaking of the yew, which from the solemnity of
its foliage, is most suited to church-yards, being as much consecrated
to the dead as the cypress among the ancients, he says that "there seems
to be no reason, why in the more southern parts of England, cypresses
should not be mixed with yews, or why cedars of Libanus, which are
perfectly hardy, and of a much quicker growth than yews, should not be
introduced. In high romantic situations, particularly, where the
church-yard is elevated above the general level, a cedar, spreading his
branches downwards from that height, would have the most picturesque,
and at the same time, the most solemn effect."
ADDENDA.
Page 5.--I am enabled from Mr. Johnson's lately published History of
English Gardening, to add a very early tract on that subject, and I take
the liberty of transcribing his exact words: "A Boke of Husbandry,
London, 4to. This little work is very rare, being one of the productions
from the press of Wynkin de Worde. It consists of but twelve leaves, and
is without date, but certainly was not of a later year than 1500. The
following extracts explain its nature. 'Here begyneth a treatyse of
Husbandry which Mayster Groshede somtyme Bysshop of Lyncoln made, and
translated it out of Frensshe into Englyshe, whiche techeth all maner of
men to governe theyr londes, tenementes, and demesnes ordinately.'
'Here endeth the Boke of Husbandry, _and of Plantynge, and Graffynge of
Trees and Vynes_.'"
About the year 1797 the late Mr. Nichols printed the Life of Robert
_Grosseteste_, the celebrated Bishop of Lincoln. By Samuel Pegge, LL.D.
With an Account of the Bishop's _Works_, &c. Illustrated with plates of
his Tomb, Ring, and Crosier. 4to. Price 13s. in boards.
Page 17.--I have in this page alluded to the hard fate of Correggio.
That my reader may know who he was, let him inspect those pages in vol.
i. of Sir U. Price's Essays, where he thus concludes a critique on his
genius: "I believe that if a variety of persons, conversant in painting,
were asked what pictures (taking every circumstance together) appeared
to them most beautiful, and had left the softest and most pleasing
impression,--the majority would fix upon Correggio."
Page 17.--W. Lawson, in the dedication to his New Orchard and Garden,
gives the name of an author on gardening, whose book I have not met
with. He dedicates it "to the right worshipfull _Sir Henry Belosses_,"
and he acknowledges, "1st. the many courtesies you have vouchsaved me.
2dly. your delightfull skill in matters of this nature. 3dly. the profit
which I received from your _learned discourse of Fruit-trees_. 4thly.
your animating and assisting of others to such endeavours. Last of all,
the rare worke of your owne in this kind, all which to publish under
your protection, I have adventured as you see." From this it would
appear, that this "learned discourse" is transfused into the New Orchard
and Garden. After all, perhaps, this "learned discourse" was merely in
conversation. At all events, it has recorded the name of Sir Henry as
warmly devoted to orcharding, or to horticulture. W. Lawson, in his
preface, dwells upon the praises of this art, "how some, and not a few
of the best, have accounted it a chiefe part of earthly happinesse to
have faire and pleasant orchards--how ancient, how profitable, how
pleasant it is." His fourteenth chapter is On the Age of Fruit-trees.
After stating that some "shall dure 1000 years," and the age of many of
the apple-trees in his little orchard, he says: "If my trees be 100
yeares old, and yet want 200 of their growth before they leave
increasing, which make 300, then we must needs resolve, that this 300
yeere are but the third part of a tree's life, because (as all things
living besides) so trees must have allowed them for their increase one
third, another third for their stand, and a third part of time also for
their decay."--"So that I resolve upon good reason, that Fruit-trees
well ordered, may live and live 1000 yeeres, and beare fruit, and the
longer, the more, the greater, and the better, because his vigour is
proud and stronger, when his yeeres are many. You shall see old trees
put their buds and blossoms both sooner and more plentifully than young
trees by much. And I sensibly perceive my young trees to inlarge their
fruit, as they grow greater, both for number, and greatnesse."--"And if
Fruit-trees last to this age, how many ages is it to be supposed, strong
and huge Timber-trees will last? whose huge bodies require the yeeres of
divers _Methushalaes_, before they end their days; whose sap is strong
and better, whose barke is hard and thicke, and their substance solid
and stiffe: all which are defences of health and long life. Their
strength withstands all forcible winds." His seventeenth chapter is on
the Ornaments of an Orchard. I here give the whole of that chapter:
"Me thinks hitherto we haue but a bare Orchard for fruit, and but halfe
good, so long as it wants those comely ornaments, that should giue
beauty to all our labours, and make much for the honest delight of the
owner and his friends.
"For it is not to be doubted: but as God hath giuen man things
profitable, so hath he allowed him honest comfort, delight, and
recreation in all the workes of his hands. Nay, all his labours vnder
the sunne without this are troubles, and vexation of mind: For what is
greedy gaine, without delight, but moyling, and turmoyling slauery? But
comfortable delight, with content, is the good of euery thing, and the
patterne of heauen. A morsell of bread with comfort, is better by much
than a fat oxe with vnquietnesse. And who can deny, but the principall
end of an Orchard, is the honest delight of one wearied with the works
of his lawfull calling? The very workes of and in an Orchard and Garden,
are better than the ease and rest of and from other labours. When God
had made man after his owne image, in a perfect state, and would haue
him to represent himselfe in authority, tranquillity and pleasure vpon
the earth, he placed him in Paradise. What was Paradise? but a Garden
and Orchard of trees and hearbs, full of pleasure? and nothing there but
delights. The gods of the earth, resembling the great God of heauen in
authority, maiestie, and abundance of all things, wherein is their most
delight? and whither doe they withdraw themselues from the troublesome
affaires of their estate, being tyred with the hearing and iudging of
litigious Controuersies? choked (as it were) with the close ayres of
their sumptuous buildings, their stomacks cloyed with variety of
Banquets, their eares filled and ouerburthened with tedious
discoursings? whither? but into their Orchards, made and prepared,
dressed and destinated for that purpose, to renue and refresh their
sences, and to call home their ouer-wearied spirits. Nay, it is (no
doubt) a comfort to them, to set open their cazements into a most
delicate Garden and Orchard, whereby they may not onely see that,
wherein they are so much delighted, but also to giue fresh, sweet, and
pleasant ayre to their galleries and chambers.
"And looke, what these men do by reason of their greatnes and ability,
prouoked with delight, the same doubtlesse would euery of vs doe, if
power were answerable to our desires, whereby we shew manifestly, that
of all other delights on earth, they that are taken by Orchards, are
most excellent, and most agreeing with nature.
"For whereas euery other pleasure commonly filles some one of our
sences, and that onely, with delight, this makes all our sences swimme
in pleasure, and that with infinite variety, ioyned with no less
commodity.
"That famous philosopher, and matchlesse orator, M. T. C. prescribeth
nothing more fit, to take away the tediousnesse and heauy load of three
or foure score yeeres, than the pleasure of an Orchard.
"What can your eyes desire to see, your ears to hear, your mouth to
tast, or your nose to smell, that is not to be had in an Orchard, with
abundance and variety? What more delightsome than an infinite variety of
sweet smelling flowers? decking with sundry colours, the greene mantle
of the earth, vniuersall mother of vs all, so by them bespotted, so
dyed, that all the world cannot sample them, and wherein it is more fit
to admire the Dyer, than imitate his workemanship. Colouring not onely
the earth, but decking the ayre, and sweetning euery breath and spirit.
"The rose red, damaske, veluet, and double double prouince rose, the
sweet muske rose, double and single, the double and single white rose.
The faire and sweet senting Woodbinde, double and single, and double
double. Purple cowslips, and double cowslips, and double double
cowslips. Primerose double and single. The violet nothing behinde the
best, for smelling sweetly. A thousand more will prouoke your content.
"And all these, by the skill of your gardner, so comely, and orderly
placed in your borders and squares, and so intermingled, that none
looking thereon, cannot but wonder, to see, what Nature corrected by Art
can doe.
"When you behold in diuers corners of your Orchard Mounts of stone, or
wood curiously wrought within and without, or of earth couered with
fruit-trees: Kentish cherry, damsons, plummes, &c. with staires of
precious workmanship. And in some corner (or moe) a true dyall or
Clocke, and some anticke workes, and especially siluer-sounding musique,
mixt instruments and voices, gracing all the rest: How will you be rapt
with delight?
"Large walkes, broad and long, close and open, like the Tempe groves in
Thessalie, raised with grauell and sand, hauing seats and bankes of
cammomile, all this delights the minde, and brings health to the body.
"View now with delight the workes of your owne hands, your fruit-trees
of all sorts, loaden with sweet blossomes, and fruit of all tasts,
operations, and colours: your trees standing in comely order which way
soeuer you looke.
"Your borders on euery side hanging and drooping with feberries,
raspberries, barberries, currens, and the rootes of your trees powdred
with strawberries, red, white, and greene, what a pleasure is this? Your
gardner can frame your lesser wood to the shape of men armed in the
field, ready to giue battell: or swift running greyhounds: or of well
sented and true running hounds, to chase the deere, or hunt the hare.
This kind of hunting shall not waste your corne, nor much your coyne.
"Mazes well framed a mans height, may perhaps make your friends wander
in gathering of berries, till he cannot recouer himselfe without your
helpe.
"To haue occasion to exercise within your Orchard: it shall be a
pleasure to haue a bowling alley, or rather (which is more manly, and
more healthfull) a paire of buts, to stretch your armes.
"Rosemary and sweete eglantine are seemely ornaments about a doore or
window, and so is woodbinde.
"And in mine opinion, I could highly commend your Orchard, if either
through it, or hard by it there should runne a pleasant riuer with
siluer streames: you might sit in your mount, and angle a pickled trout,
or sleightie eele, or some other dainty fish. Or moats, whereon you
might row with a boate, and fish with nettes.
"Store of bees in a dry and warme bee-house, comely made of fir-boords,
to sing, and sit, and feede vpon your flowers and sprouts, make a
pleasant noyse and sight. For cleanely and innocent bees, of all other
things, loue and become, and thriue in an Orchard. If they thriue (as
they must needes, if your gardner bee skilfull, and loue them: for they
loue their friends, and hate none but their enemies) they will, besides
the pleasure, yeeld great profit, to pay him his wages. Yea, the
increase of twenty stockes or stooles, with other fees, will keepe your
Orchard.
"You need not doubt their stings, for they hurt not whom they know, and
they know their keeper and acquaintance. If you like not to come amongst
them, you need not doubt them: for but neere their store, and in their
owne defence, they will not fight, and in that case onely (and who can
blame them?) they are manly, and fight desperately. Some (as that
Honorable Lady at Hacknes, whose name doth much grace mine Orchard) vse
to make seats for them in the stone wall of their Orchard, or Garden,
which is good, but wood is better.
"A vine ouer-shadowing a seate, is very comely, though her grapes with
vs ripe slowly.
"One chiefe grace that adornes an Orchard, I cannot let slip: A brood of
nightingales, who with their seuerall notes and tunes, with a strong
delightsome voyce, out of a weake body, will beare you company night and
day. She loues (and liues in) hots of woods in her hart. She will helpe
you to cleanse your trees of caterpillars, and all noysome wormes and
flyes. The gentle robin red-breast will helpe her, and in winter in the
coldest stormes will keepe a part. Neither will the silly wren be behind
in summer, with her distinct whistle (like a sweete recorder) to cheere
your spirits.
"The black-bird and threstle (for I take it the thrush sings not, but
deuoures) sing loudly in a May morning, delights the eare much (and you
neede not want their company, if you haue ripe cherries or berries, and
would as gladly as the rest do you pleasure:) But I had rather want
their company than my fruit.
"What shall I say? A thousand of pleasant delightes are attendant in an
Orchard: and sooner shall I be weary, than I can recken the least part
of that pleasure, which one that hath and loues an Orchard, may find
therein.
"What is there of all these few that I haue reckoned, which doth not
please the eye, the eare, the smell, and taste? And by these sences as
organes, pipes, and windowes, these delights are carried to refresh the
gentle, generous, and noble mind.
"To conclude, what ioy may you haue, that you liuing to such an age,
shall see the blessings of God on your labours while you liue, and
leaue behind you to heires or successors (for God will make heires) such
a worke, that many ages after your death, shall record your loue to
their countrey? And the rather, when you consider (chap. 14.) to what
length of time your worke is like to last."
Page 30.--Having briefly glanced in this page at the delight with which
Sir H. Davy, Mr. Worlidge, and Mr. Whateley, viewed the flowers of
spring, I can only add this reflection of Sturm:--"If there were no
stronger proofs on earth of the power, goodness, and wisdom of God, the
flowers of spring alone, would be sufficient to convince us of it."
Page 45.--The character of this modest and candid man, (Switzer), has
found an able advocate in the honest pen of Mr. Johnson, who, in p. 159
of his History of Gardening, after noticing the acrimony of his
opponents, observes, "Neglect has pursued him beyond the grave, for his
works are seldom mentioned or quoted as authorities of the age he lived
in. To me he appears to be the best author of his time; and if I was
called upon to point out the classic authors of gardening, _Switzer_
should be one of the first on whom I would lay my finger. His works
evidence him at once to have been a sound, practical horticulturist, a
man well versed in the botanical science of the day, in its most
enlarged sense." Mr. Johnson enumerates the distinct contents of each
chapter in the Iconologia--the Kitchen Gardener--and the Fruit Gardener.