THE French term Ferme ornee, was, I believe, invented by Mr. Shenstone, who was conscious that the English word Farm would not convey the idea which he attempted to realize in the scenery of the Leasowes. That much celebrated spot, in his time, consisted of many beautiful small fields, connected with each other by walks and gates, but bearing no resemblance to a farm as a subject of profit. I have never walked through these grounds without lamenting, not only the misapplication of good taste, but that constant disappointment which the benevolent Shenstone must have experienced in attempting to unite two objects so incompatible as ornament and profit. Instead of surrounding his house with such a quantity of ornamental lawn or park only, as might be consistent with the size of the mansion, or the extent of the property, his taste, rather than his ambition, led him to ornament the whole of his estate; vainly hoping that he might retain all the advantages of a farm, blended with the scenery of a park. Thus he lived under the continual mortification of disappointed hope, and, with a mind exquisitely sensible, he felt equally the sneer of the great man, at the magnificence of his attempt, and the ridicule of the farmer, at the misapplication of his paternal acres.
