Unfortunately, the monumental works of the landscape gardener are not like those of the architect, which live to future ages, and become a lasting record of the taste and genius of their contriver. Time makes unrelenting havoc with designs which, during the first ten or twenty years, may have afforded unmixed satisfaction. Young trees will outgrow their situations, while old ones will be uprooted by age or accident; flower-gardens which owed their charm to the light but fragile trellis ornament, or the constant culture of their elegant parterres, will fall into decay, or be neglected by their owners; while the facility with which any alterations may be made, aiding the love of change which is natural to most minds, in the course of years leaves no trace of that master-hand which had first laid the foundation of future improvement*. It is, therefore, by Mr. Repton's printed works alone that his well-earned fame can be properly appreciated; and, in the republication of those works, their present Editor is conferring a benefit on the public, by bringing them forward in a form which will render them more accessible to the general reader.
*[On visiting places which were known to he more particularly formed by Mr. Repton's taste, the writer of this Sketch has questioned the presiding gardener, but has generally been answered-"It was all my master's laying out."]
