Gardens of celebrities and celebrated gardens in and around London . liar incommunicablesensuous charm, has its own special mode of reaching the imagination,its own special responsibilities to its material. Kent realized this,and neglected nothing that might be likely to stimulate the fancy,and unconsciously excite pleasurable or solemn emotions in thespectator. Walpole says of him that he was painter enoughto taste the charms of landscape, bold and opinionated enoughto dare to dictate, and born with a genius to strike out a greatsystem from the tw^ilight of imperfect essays. He had a fine eye
Gardens of celebrities and celebrated gardens in and around London . liar incommunicablesensuous charm, has its own special mode of reaching the imagination,its own special responsibilities to its material. Kent realized this,and neglected nothing that might be likely to stimulate the fancy,and unconsciously excite pleasurable or solemn emotions in thespectator. Walpole says of him that he was painter enoughto taste the charms of landscape, bold and opinionated enoughto dare to dictate, and born with a genius to strike out a greatsystem from the tw^ilight of imperfect essays. He had a fine eye for proportion, and fully appreciated thefascination of vistas, and long perspectives. Having banishedthe horrors of the topiary art, he knew how so to dispose ofhis masses of foliage—whether evergreen or deciduous—so thatin all the circling hours of the day, and in every month ofthe year, they remained broad and effective. He made greatplay with cedars and yews ; he knew both the preciousness ofharmony, and the importance of ;_contrast, in the colour and 166. o^ Q, Cj o CHISWIGK HOUSE tones of greens, and in dealing with trees that turn red andvellow in autumn. In the grounds at Chiswick there is a certain sedg}^ pool in thecentre of which is an obelisk—one of three in the gardens—and while its moss-grown base is reflected in the still water, itssummit catches, at times, the last gleams of the sinking sun. Itlies in a green hollow, and is faced by a little domed and circulartemple with a portico of the Ionic order, and broad steps ; a templethat looks eastward. Above the pool, now picturesquely-enoughhalf choked with reeds and rushes—rise in concentric semicircles,terraces of soft green turf, said to have been the favourite hauntof Georgiana, the beautiful Duchess of Devonshire. The whole is shut in on the north, east, and west sides, by adense and high plantation of yews, and solemn evergreen rather to the left there is a break in the belt of foliage, allo
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1910, bookpublishe, booksubjectgardens
