Having already published a volume on the subject of landscape gardening, it will be unnecessary to explain the motives which induced me to adopt this name for a profession, as distinct from the art of landscape painting, as it is from the art of planting cabbages, or pruning fruit-trees.* The slight, and often gaudy sketches by which I have found it necessary to elucidate my opinions, are the strongest proofs that I do not profess to be a landscape painter; but to represent the scenes of Nature in her various hues of blue sky, purple mountains, green trees, &c., which are often disgusting to the eye of a connoisseur in painting.
*[In the art of gardening, the great materials of the scene are provided by Nature herself, and the artist must satisfy himself with that degree of expression which she has bestowed. In a landscape, on the contrary, the painter has the choice of the circumstances he is to represent, and can give whatever force or extent he pleases to the expression he wishes to convey. In gardening, the materials of the scene are few, and those few unwieldy, and the artist must often content himself with the reflection, that he has given the best disposition in his power to the scanty and intractable materials of Nature. In a landscape, on the contrary, the whole range of scenery is before the eye of the painter. -Allison.]
