DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.49977#0257
CHAPTER XI.
DAWN OF LANDSCAPE GARDENING.
“ Shade above shade, a woody theatre
Of stateliest view.”
Milton, Paradise Lost.
“ Shower every beauty, every fragrance shower,
Herbs, flowers and fruits ; ...”
Thomson, Seasons.
rPHE gardeners who followed London and Wise as designers,
x as well as cultivators and planters, were Stephen Switzer,
and after him Bridgeman. These men were busy at a time
when formal gardening was on the wane. It was in Queen
Anne’s time that Addison and Pope first ridiculed the old style,
and sought to bring in the fashion of “ copying Nature.” But
the reaction and destruction of old gardens did not take place
till later; when the theories they advanced had had time to
spread. There is no lack of views and designs of gardens
during this period. They are to be found in County Histories
such as Plot’s Staffordshire, Atkyns’ Gloucester, and Dugdale’s
Warwickshire; also Beeverell, “Les Delices de la Grande
Bretagne et de 1’Irlande,” published at Leyden in 1707, in
Britannia Illustrata, 1709, with a large series of views by
Kip, and in other similar works. If the authors had foreseen
the annihilation that was to befall so many gardens, they could
hardly have more carefully preserved their designs. But these
pictures are mostly taken from some imaginary point, and give
a bird’s-eye view of house, garden, and surrounding landscape,
in a conventional plan, regardless of perspective. Faithful
DAWN OF LANDSCAPE GARDENING.
“ Shade above shade, a woody theatre
Of stateliest view.”
Milton, Paradise Lost.
“ Shower every beauty, every fragrance shower,
Herbs, flowers and fruits ; ...”
Thomson, Seasons.
rPHE gardeners who followed London and Wise as designers,
x as well as cultivators and planters, were Stephen Switzer,
and after him Bridgeman. These men were busy at a time
when formal gardening was on the wane. It was in Queen
Anne’s time that Addison and Pope first ridiculed the old style,
and sought to bring in the fashion of “ copying Nature.” But
the reaction and destruction of old gardens did not take place
till later; when the theories they advanced had had time to
spread. There is no lack of views and designs of gardens
during this period. They are to be found in County Histories
such as Plot’s Staffordshire, Atkyns’ Gloucester, and Dugdale’s
Warwickshire; also Beeverell, “Les Delices de la Grande
Bretagne et de 1’Irlande,” published at Leyden in 1707, in
Britannia Illustrata, 1709, with a large series of views by
Kip, and in other similar works. If the authors had foreseen
the annihilation that was to befall so many gardens, they could
hardly have more carefully preserved their designs. But these
pictures are mostly taken from some imaginary point, and give
a bird’s-eye view of house, garden, and surrounding landscape,
in a conventional plan, regardless of perspective. Faithful