The term "Landscape Gardener" was first adopted by Mr. Repton: and Mr. Uvedale Price, in his well-known "Essay on the Picturesque" accuses him of "assuming a title of no small pretensions." His reply to this shews that he was fully aware of the difficulties that were to be conquered, when he first "determined to make that pursuit his profession which had hitherto been only his amusement." He remarks: -"It is the misfortune of every liberal art, to find amongst its professors some men of uncouth manners; and, since my profession has more frequently been practised by mere day-labourers, and persons of no education, it is the more difficult to give it that rank in the polite arts which I conceive it ought to hold. But I am more particularly called upon to support its respectability, since you attack the very existence of that profession, at the head of which both you and Mr. Knight have the goodness to say I am deservedly placed."
