PREFACE.

Of the many excellent works written both on Architecture and Landscape Gardening, none have treated especially of the connexion between the architectural embellishment of gardens and landscape gardening proper. It is to supply this want that the author offers this book to the public.

The art of Landscape Gardening when applied to the formation of gardens bears so intimate a relation to that of Architecture, that a writer who professes to treat of the one must necessarily touch upon the other.

The absolute point of contact is where the regular or geometrical arrangement of the Garden has to be designed so as to accord with the prominent architectural features of the House, the centres of walks and objects being determined with reference to the principal.

doors and windows, more particularly when terraces, balustrades, and steps are used.*

If in the remarks which he has thus felt called upon to make on the several styles both of architecture and gardening, he sometimes deals with matters that seem so obvious as scarcely to require notice, he may plead the necessity of expressing his ideas as plainly as possible in a work not addressed exclusively to the profession.

Nothing is easier than to write a book of mild generalities, encouraging the reader to do what is right and avoid what is wrong; but as advice obscured by doubtful or hesitating forms of expression is practically useless, the author feels that no apology is needed for the apparent dogmatism of a book in which he sets forth not only his own conclusions, but the rules laid down by the best professors. The writer cannot say he thinks that a Corinthian column should be ten diameters high, or that a geometrical garden requires level ground.

If in many places it may seem not easy to determine whether the advice is given to architects, landscape gardeners, or amateurs, it may be urged that the

* This point is clearly illustrated in Vanbrugh's letter to the Earl of Manchester, printed at the end of this volume.