LANGLEY. It seems to have been as much the fashion of the present century to condemn avenues, as it was in the last to plant them; and yet the subject is so little understood, that most people think they sufficiently justify their opinion, in either case, by merely saying, "I like an avenue," or, "I hate an avenue:" it is my business to analyze this approbation or disgust.
The several degrees of pleasure which the mind derives from the love of order, of unity, antiquity, greatness of parts, and continuity, are all in some measure gratified by the long perspective view of a stately avenue: for the truth of this assertion, I appeal to the sensations that every one must have felt who has visited the lofty avenues of Windsor, Hatfield, Burleigh, &c. &c. before experience had pointed out that tedious sameness, and the many inconveniences which have deservedly brought avenues into disrepute. This sameness is so obvious, that, by the effect of avenues, all novelty or diversity of situation is done away; and the views from every house in the kingdom may be reduced to the same landscape, if looking up or down a straight line, betwixt two green walls, deserves the name of landscape.
