The flower-garden at NUNEHAM,* without being formal, is highly enriched, but not too much crowded with seats, temples, statues, vases, or other ornaments, which, being works of art, beautifully harmonize with that profusion of flowers and curious plants which distinguish the flower-garden from natural landscape, although the walks are not in straight lines. But at VALLEY FIELD, where the flower-garden is in front of a long wall, the attempt to make the scene natural would be affected; and, therefore, as two great sources of interest in a place are variety and contrast, the only means by which these can be introduced are in this flower-garden, which, as a separate object, becomes a sort of episode to the general and magnificent scenery.
*[Earl Harcourt, although possessing great good taste, gives the whole merit of this garden to Mason the poet, as he does of his pleasure-grounds to Brown. Thus, superior to that narrow jealousy which would deny the just tribute of praise to the professor, his lordship is satisfied with having been the liberal friend and patron of merit.]
[Nuneham Courtenay is a village in Oxfordshire, England, five miles south-east of Oxford. Nuneham House is a Palladian villa, built for the 1st Earl of Harcourt in 1756 and acquired by the Brahma Kumaris World Spiritual University in the twentieth century. ]
