The gardens, or pleasure-grounds, near a house, may be considered as so many different apartments belonging to its state, its comfort, and its pleasure. The magnificence of the house depends on the number, as well as the size of its rooms; and the similitude between the house and the garden may be justly extended to the mode of decoration. A large lawn, like a large room, when unfurnished, displeases more than a small one: if only in part, or meanly furnished, we shall soon leave it with disgust, whether it be a room covered with the finest green baize, or a lawn kept with the most exquisite verdure; we look for carpets in one, and flowers in the other. If, in its unfurnished state, there chance to be a looking-glass without a frame, it can only reflect the bare walls; and in like manner a pool of water, without surrounding plantations, or other features, reflects only the nakedness of the scene.
