I must here again remark, that there is no error more common than to substitute greatness of dimensions for greatness of character. Thus, in landscape, we often see lawns of great extent, with as little variety or interest as Salisbury Plain; and walks and drives of many miles in length, through shrubberies and plantations, without any change of scenery, or any diversity of features; while, in architecture, we occasionally see huge masses without shape or proportion, boasting the ground they cover, or the apartments they contain, yet with less appearance of a palace than a cotton-mill, or a manufactory. I am here led to make a marked distinction between the improvements relating to art and those relating to nature, from the two leading circumstances to which my attention was first called, viz. the proper situation for the stables, and the proper management of the water; the latter belongs to landscape gardening, as an art which imitates nature; the former to architecture, as an art that adorns nature, and, indeed, forms the strongest auxiliary to the art of landscape gardening.
