The art of landscape gardening / by Humphry Repton ; including his Sketches and hints on landscape gardening and Theory and practice of landscape gardening ; edited by John Nolen.

The Place of the Viewer: The Embodied Beholder in the History of Art, 1764-1968

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He could not be accused of mere imitation, for, instead of attempting to reproduce the effects of nature in a mechanical or artificial way, he aimed rather to put in action the causes by which those effects are produced. Then, as he said, the effects would be natural. He, like his American successor, Olmsted, had no sympathy with a design that did not provide adequately and frankly for the plain necessities of human living. Half-hearted compromises did not meet his favour ; nevertheless he took pains to reconcile these necessary and artificial features with the artistic aims of the design as a whole. Repton's most permanent contribution to his art, however, is to be found not in his works of.

Scale -Examples of Comparatrce Proportion Use of Perspective THE theory and practice of landscape gardening have seldom fallen under the consideration of the same author ; because those who have delivered their opinions in writing on this art have had little practical experience, and few of its professors have been able to deduce their rules from theoretical principles.

Hence it arises that persons are frequently disappointed, after building a house, to find that those objects which they expected would form the leading features of their landscape are scarcely seen, except from such a situation in the room as may be inconvenient to the spectator; or, otherwise, the object is shewn in an oblique and unfavoufa^e point of view.

In the progress of this work I shall have occasion to call the reader's attention to the principles here assumed, and which, in certain situations, are of great importance and require to be well considered.

Introduction -General Principles -Utility

The rippling motion of water is a circumstance to which improvers have seldom paid sufficient attention.

It would be very easy to produce it in this instance by leading water in a channel from the upper pool, and after passing underground by tubes for a few yards, let it suddenly burst through a bed of sand and stones, and being thus filtered by ascent, it would ripple along the valley till it joined the great water.

Milton was aware of this contrast betwixt the river and the rill, where he mentions, amongst the scenery of his Allegro, ** Shallow brooks and rivers wide.".

This may be accomplished at Harewood, where the most beautiful stone is easily procured, but in disposing the ledges of rock, they should not be laid horizontally, but with the same slanting inclination that is observed, more or less, in the bed of the neighbouring river.

I ]i Amongst these 1 shall first mention that, instead of surrounding a young plantation with a hedge and ditch, with live quick or thorns, I generally recommend as many or even more thorns than trees, to be intermixed in the plantation and the whole to be fenced with posts and rails, more or less neat, according to the situation.

Sometimes it happens, from the intermixture of property or other causes, that the fence is obliged to make a very acute angle ; this may occasionally be remedied by another line of fence fitting to its greatest projection ; and as this same principle may be extended to roads, walks, or rivers, I shall explain it.

Theory and Practice

Court involving many principles in the art of landscape gardening, I take this opportunity of justifying my practice, in opposition to the wild theory which has lately appeared ; and shall therefore occasionally allude to this new system when it bears any relation to their objects at Sufton Court.

There is no principle of the art so necessary to be studied as the effects produced on the mind by the first view of certain objects, or, rather, that general disposition of the human mind bv which it is capable of strongly receiving first impressions.

My opinion concerning the improvement of Sufton

The Art of Landscape Gardening wrong or misunderstood in the manner of adapting Grecian architecture to their large mansions in the country: their professors, having studied from models in a different climate, often forget the difference of circumstances and shew their classic taste, like those who correctly quote the words, but misapply the sense of an author.

So this resemblance may now be considered as extending further, for, as in music, so likewise in colours, it will be found that harmony consists in distance and contrast, not in similitude or approximation.

The art of landscape gardening / by Humphry Repton ; including his Sketches and hints on landscape gardening and Theory and practice of landscape gardening ; edited by John Nolen.

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Citations

The Place of the Viewer: The Embodied Beholder in the History of Art, 1764-1968

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