Page:Architectural Review and American Builders' Journal, Volume 1, 1869.djvu/406

 328 Sloan's Architectural Review and Builders' Journal. [Nov., lines ; while, on the other hand, the highest effects of regular symmetry are to be found in the outlines of natural objects. The Geometrical Style abounds in straight lines, meeting principally at right angles ; the flower compartments forming some portion of a circle, or parallelogram, joining into each other, with perfect symmetry. It, also, deals largely with architectural ornaments ; such as terrace walls, balustrades, vases, statuary, fountains, flights of steps and stone pediments. This style is well fitted for the imme- diate production of grand effects. Hence, in early stages of society, and in coun- tries abounding with the irregular natu- ral forms of uncultivated scenery, dis- tinction is at once imparted, by intro- ducing perfectly level, or regularly sloping surfaces of ground ; trees planted at measured distances apart ; and orna- mental lakes and ponds, bounded by straight, canal-like lines, so as to leave no chance of mistaking any portion of the scene as having been the result of unassisted natural arrangement; but unmistakably to convey the impression of a-display of wealth and refinement ; and indicate ownership, by distinguish- ing the country residence from the natu- ral and unenclosed rude scenery of the neighborhood. As wealth increased, so also increased the desire for its ostentatious display ; and what was perfectly appropriate, and in good keeping, degenerated into unmeaning and grotesque absurdities. These extravagancies were carried to extremes, in Europe, about the begin- ning of the last century. In an essay on " Modern Taste in Gardening," by Horace Walpole, the author remarks, " The compass and square were of more use in plantations, than the nursery- man. The measured walk, the quincunx and the etoile, imposed their unsatisfy- ing sameness on every garden. Trees were headed ; and, their sides pared away, many groves seem green chests set upon poles. Seats of marble, arbors and summer-houses, terminated every vista ; and symmetry, even where the space was too large to permit its being remarked at one view, was so essential that, as Pope observed ' each alley has a hrother ; And half the platform just reflects the other.' Knots of flowers were more defensi- bly subjected to the same regularity. In the garden of Marshal de Biron, at Paris, consisting of fourteen acres, every walk is buttoned on each side by lines of flower-pots, which succeed in their seasons. When I saw it, there were nine thousand pots of Asters But the ornament whose merit soonest fades, is the hermitage, or scenes adapted to contemplation. It is almost comic to set aside a quarter in one's garden to be melancholy in." Sir William Temple, in his essays, gives a very full description of this style of gardening at his time. He ad- vises thus : "The garden is best to be square, encompassed with a stately arched hedge ; the arches to be upon carpenter's work ; over even T arch a little belly, enough to receive a cage of birds ; and over every space between the arches, some other little figure, with broad plates of glass, colored and gilt, for the sun to play upon. " This usurpation of false taste attracted the attention of various writers, such as Addison, Knight, Pope and others of lesser note. The former, in his criti- cism on Milton's Paradise, in the Spec- tator, made a great impression by his '• remarks upon the poet's description of the Garden of Eden. Pope, in his Moral Essays on " The Vanity of Ex- pense in People of Wealth and Quality, and the Abuse of the word Taste," describes the "false taste of magnifi- cence" in the following lines : " At Timon's villa let us pass a day, Where all cry out, 'What sums are thrown away!' So proud, so grand : of that stupendous air, Soft and airieeable come never there.