OF THE SITUATION, CHARACTER, AND CIRCUMSTANCES. THE PAVILLON, originally erected on a small scale, with very little adjoining territory, is now become surrounded by houses on every side; and what was only a small fishing-town, is now become equal to some cities in extent and population. Such must ever be the influence of a royal residence, which cannot long exist in solitude. The situation of the Pavillon is, therefore, that of a palace surrounded by other houses, to which great extent of garden is neither possible nor desirable: yet the ground on which the Pavillon is built (including its offices and gardens), occupies more space than generally belongs to houses built in towns, and includes as much ground as is necessary for a garden so situated. This supposes the proper distinction to be made between garden and park scenery, which have, of late, been confounded: the park may imitate nature in its wilder forms, but the garden must still be an artificial object. The park, by its formal clumps, its sweeping plantations, and meandering gravel roads, has, of late, become an overgrown and slovenly garden; while the garden, by its naked lawn, and its invisible boundary, has become a mere grass field, without interest or animation. The magnificent terraces of former times have been sloped, to unite with the adjoining pasture; while shrubs and flowers, and all the gay accompaniments of a garden, are banished from the windows of the palace, that it may appear to stand in the middle of a lawn, less cheerful than a cottage on a naked common. This defect in modern gardening is to be attributed to the misapplication of the sunk fence, which gives freedom in appearance, but, in reality, confinement. Fortunately, the sunk fence cannot be applied to the gardens of the Pavillon; we cannot blend the surface of the grass with adjoining streets and parades; we cannot give great ideal extent by concealing the actual boundary; we cannot lay open the foreground of the scene to admit distant views of sea or land, while impeded by intervening houses; and, therefore, both the character and situation of the Pavillon render these common rules of landscape gardening totally inapplicable.
