After various attempts to arrange, systematically, the matter of this Volume, I found the difficulties increase with the number of the subjects; and although each was originally treated with order and method in a separate state, yet, in combining many of these subjects, the same order and method could not easily be preserved. I have, however, with as much attention to arrangement as my professional duties would admit, collected such observations as may best vindicate the Art of Landscape Gardening from the imputation of being founded on caprice and fashion: occasionally adding such matter as I thought might suit the various taste or inclinations of various readers. Some delight in speculative opinions, some in experimental facts; others prefer description, others look for novelty, and some, perhaps, for what I hope will not be found in this Work, impracticable theories.
