Gardenvisit.com The Garden Guide

Book: Fragments on the Theory and Practice of Landscape Gardening, 1816
Chapter: Fragment XxvII. Gardens Of Ashridge.

Modern gardening at Ashridge

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OF MODERN GARDENlNG.* When the straight walks and lofty walls of ancient gardening had disgusted by their sameness, prevailing in all places alike, whether great or small, it was naturally to be expected that fashion would run into the opposite extreme, by making everything curved, as the greatest contrast to straight. To the little interest we experience, after the first hundred paces, in a meandering walk betwixt two broad verges of grass, at a great distance from the beds of flowers and shrubs, may be added the mistake of mixing together in such a manner every kind of plant, that no one part of the garden differs from another. Yet there are many pleasure-grounds of this kind, with walks of a tedious length, which I have shuddered to encounter: for this reason I have never advised such walks, except as the connecting lines leading to other objects. *[It will, perhaps, be objected, that this same idea has already appeared in the preceding fragment; but such repetitions must occasionally be unavoidable, in a work like this, collected from various detached subjects.]