Sir William Chambers

“ It is not the fence that constitutes the Garden; Cobham, Stourton, Blenheim, would still be what they are, though the pales or walls by which they are enclosed were taken away: neither is privacy necessary to the essence of a Garden; for Richmond and Kew are surely the same, when open to all the world, as when they are only accessible to the Royal Family; nor is useful or profitable culture incompatible with the idea, either of our Chinese, or your English Gardening. ”

“ Their vegetation too is uncommonly picturesque; the abundance of water with which they are every where supplied, enables them to form a thousand pleasing combinations; and the venerable vestiges of ancient structures, which rear their decaying heads above the plantations, add surprizingly to the dignity of the scenery.
At every step, the admiration of the spectator is excited by statues, therms, bas-reliefs, sarcophagi urns, vases, and other remains of ancient splendour ”

“ Artists of other professions, vary their manners of applying to the human affections; suiting them to the circumstances or nature of the subjects before them; and they are oftenest indebted to these variations for their success; why then should Gardeners always confine themselves to the same tract, and torture all dispositions to adapt them to the same method, like that tyrant of old, who stretched or mutilated every guest, till he fitted a particular bed? ”

“ Whatever is familiar, is by no means calculated to excite the strongest feelings; and though a close resemblance to familiar objects may delight the ignorant, yet, to the skilful, it has but few charms, never any of the most elevated sort; and is sometimes even disgusting: without a little assistance from art, nature is seldom tolerable ”

“ Though woods, from various causes, are now more rare than heretofore amongst you, yet are there, in most parts, some still remaining; their natural beauties are many, and little more is left for art to do in them, than to form roads, to thin or thicken them occasionally; where it may be wanting, to intersperse, amongst the plantations, a few proper shrubs and flowers; to open recesses, and to decorate them with objects; this done, they will be infinitely superior, in every respect, to any of the gaudy trifling confused plantations with which all your English-made Gardens are so crouded. ”

“ That our artificial stile of Gardening is expensive, is doubtless true; yet certainly not ruinously so. In my former voyage, I knew an unfortunate prince, who, on a very moderate allowance from his relations, supported a court in splendour; and, with the surplus, formed one of the most extraordinary, as well as magnificent artificial Gardens I ever saw. It is surprizing what good management will do, where management is necessary; but you are too rich ever to need it in any thing. ”

“ The rivers of Nature flow in forms that Art can never equal: their natural modifications, particularly in mountainous places, are sufficiently numerous; a little [Pg 129] management heightens or diminishes all their expressions, varies their appearances, and adapts them to scenes of any character: their banks are soon adorned, even in the richest manner; for roses, a thousand other shrubs, and most perennial flowers, will grow as easily, and with as little culture, as primroses and briars do. ”

“ What pity that such destructive brutality should exist in a country so particularly favoured by Nature, and so capable of improvement in the highest degree; whilst, in every other part of the world, it is unknown, almost unheard of! ”

“ Any tract of land, therefore, whose characteristick expressions have been strengthened by art, and in which the spontaneous arrangements of nature have been corrected, improved and adorned by the hand of taste, ought to be considered as a Garden, though only fenced with common hedges, and although the roads or paths passing through it be publick, and the grounds of which it is composed cultivated to the utmost advantage. ”

“ Foreshadowing William Cowper's satire of "Th' omnipotent magician, Brown" in The Task, Chambers had warned that estate-"improvement" could lead to irreparable devastation of the nation's woodland. Several of Chambers' means to certain effects sound more like a practical landscape architect at work than a Disneyland impressario parading his promised thrills: when he urges diversification of material relative to seasonal change or human entertainments, for instance, or the use of wire fencing and other substitutes for the ha-ha. ”

“ But in 1757 he could expect his crisp text and twenty-one plates to administer a calming dose of authenticity to the chinoiserie fever then raging. In fact, this large and handsome volume appears to have driven from the market the pattern-books of "William Halfpenny" and others, with their ridiculous dragon-finials atop Georgian hip-roofs and Venetian windows bordered by crockets—the carpentry trade trying to sustain a mood for renovations waning by the early fifties. ”

“ In the first hurry of criticism, every deviation is accounted an error; every singularity an extravagance; every difficulty a visionary's dream: warm with resentment, biassed by interests and prejudices, the angry champions of the old, rarely show mercy to the new ”

“ And permit me to say, that Gardens of this sort, would not only be more magnificent, but also much more beautiful and perfect in every respect, than any even amongst the best of your artificial performances. In the great style of Gardening, neatness is not only superfluous, but destructive of the principal intent: the [Pg 128] common roads, bridleways and paths, of a country, however wild, are always preferable to the stiff, formal, made walks of a Garden; they are, in themselves, grander, more natural, and may, with a very little assistance ”

“ In China, our large Gardens are obtained at an almost incredible expence, and attended with many inconveniencys: amongst you, whose policy, whose manners are totally different from ours, they might often be had at a moderate charge, and without much trouble; for [Pg 124] formidable as they may at first appear, it is certain that most of their scenery is easily executed, when proper opportunities occur, which is frequently the case in Europe, particularly in England; where your illustrious families have large domains; where agriculture is neater and more various than in other countries ”

“ Fields covered with corn, turneps, beans, potatoes, hemp, or productions of a similar nature; meadows, pasture lands, hop grounds, orchards, and other parts of English culture; interwoven with common hedges, or blended with accidental plantations, require little, if any assistance from Art, to be more picturesque than lawns the most curiously dotted with clumps; and villages, country churches, farm-houses or cottages, when placed with judgement, and designed with taste, enrich and adorn a landscape as well as more expensive structures. ”

“ It must, however, be confessed, that there is an inconveniency subsisting amongst you, which will always retard, and often prevent the execution of this extensive plan of Gardening; it is the licentiousness of your youth and common people, who delight in destroying every extraordinary thing that comes in their way: if a great man plants trees to shade and beautify a road, the people cut them down ”

“ Natural Gardening, when treated upon an extensive plan, when employed with judgement, and conducted with art, is perhaps as superior to all other sorts of culture, as heroick verse is to every other species of writing ”

“ Every artist, therefore, who has the fortune to meet with patrons of large possessions, and liberal sentiments, may give full scope to his imagination, and boldly apply [Pg 127] whatever he has seen, heard, or his own fancy may have suggested, that is great, extraordinary, or surprising: instead of confining his views to a few acres, to form a trifling composition, scarcely superior to the desert at a festival; and which, insignificant as it would be, none but the healthful and vigorous could ever see; he may convert a whole province into a Garden ”

“ It is natural enough for a stranger to be dazzled with the splendor of our Oriental plantations; upon a cursory inspection, to conclude them too vast, too magnificent, too expensive for European imitation ”

“ It is thus that far the noblest part of our Chinese Gardens, and those which at first sight appear most impracticable, may be obtained even amongst the common dispositions of English nature; and the great might thus have pleasure-grounds, extensive and extraordinary as those of the East, without any very considerable expence: men of less note would naturally imitate their superiors, by embellishing their possessions in the same manner ”

“ All connoisseurs amongst you, and even amongst us, agree in despising our enchanted, or supernatural scenery; which, they say, is trifling, absurd, extravagant, abounding in conceits and boyish tricks; that operating chiefly by surprize, it has little or no effect, after a first or second inspection, and consequently can afford no pleasure to the owner: yet our best Artists, who have no excessive reverence for the decrees of connoisseurs [29] , and who think the owner is not the only person to be entertained, often introduce it ”

“ Wherever the extent is considerable, and the lands properly formed for the purpose, the mode of natural Gardening, just recommended, ought certainly to be employed in preference to any other, as it surpasses all others in perfection, and is yet most easily executed: but in or near great cities, where property is much divided, on flats, where nature has no play, in all tame situations ”

“ He is sorry to have been under a necessity of censuring, even in a distant manner, what seemed to him imperfect amongst you; but whoever would be instrumental in the advancement of science, must declare his mind freely, and sometimes enforce his precepts by examples that exist: his observations have been as general as the subject would permit; for it is never his inclination to give offence; yet where truth is to be investigated, the truth must necessarily be told ”

“ These choice pieces of cultivation are appropriated to the owner and his select friends; set aside for convivial pleasures, and enjoyments that can only be tasted in private: they may be considered as more spacious apartments, as habitations adapted to the milder seasons of the year, in which Art and Nature unite to furnish a variety of whatever is beautiful, elegant, extraordinary or entertaining ”

“ There is reason to believe, from various hints which have been dropped by Gentlemen here present, that the veracity of Chet-qua's description is doubted; nay, that the Gardens described, are supposed to have no existence but in Chet-qua's brain: be it so, my friends; I shall not seek to refute what you seem so strongly disposed to [Pg 159] believe; it is not at present material: for the end of all that I have said, was rather as an Artist, to set before you a new style of Gardening ”

“ To an unidentified reader of his first edition Chambers had justified such artfulness, and his entire "Chinese" myth for the promotion of a change in landscaping-style, this way: "I thought it necessary to move in an exalted sphere. Our Gardeners, and I fear our Connoisseurs too, are such tame animals, that much sparring is necessary to keep them properly on their haunches." ”

“ Our eastern artists, therefore, seldom attempt to create, but rather imitate the tonsor, the habit-maker, the posture-master, and all the other polishers of man; who dispose, decorate, cleanse, clip, and add grace to what is already formed to their hands: to make nature, they say, is tedious and difficult beyond conception ”

“ In China they have an innumerable multitude of connoisseurs and criticks; who, with a very superficial knowledge, a few general maxims, and some hard words, boldly decide on subjects they do not understand: hence the whole fraternity is fallen into disrepute. ”

“ But there is a strong tincture of the rhubarb in all human competitions; and liberty, which has so many advantages, is, nevertheless, attended with some inconveniencies, of a very serious nature; amongst which, the ferocity of its lowest votaries is none of the least formidable. ”

“ Hitherto I have only described of B——m, what strangers usually see; but the whole park, above twelve miles in circumference, and several farms adjoining to it, are uncommonly beautiful, rich in old planting, in water, and in a great variety of picturesque sites and points of view; so that, with a very little dressing, with some assistance from the sister arts of architecture and sculpture, the whole might easily be converted into one large magnificent Garden. ”

“ Simplicity must therefore be used with discretion, and the dose be adapted to the constitution of the patients, amongst savages and Hottentots; where arts are unknown, refinements unheard of, an abundant portion may be necessary; but wherever civilization has improved the mental faculties, a little, with proper management, will go a very great way: need I prove what the music, poetry, language, arts and manners, of every nation demonstrate, beyond the possibility of a doubt. ”