by their condition, to waste the vigour of life in hard labour, fhould ever go far in fo refined and difficult a purfuit.

Our Author severely animadverts on the gardens of Italy, France, Germany, and Spain, as well as thofe of England. The latter, he fays, differ very little from common fields, fo closely is common nature copied in most of them. There is generally, he adds, fo little variety in the objects, fuch a poverty of imagination in the contrivance, and of art in the arrangement, that these compofitions rather appear the offspring of chance than defign; and a stranger is often at a loss to know whether he be walking in a meadow, or in a pleafure-ground, made and kept at a very confiderable expence: he sees nothing to amufe him, nothing to excite his curiofity, nor any thing to keep up his attention. At his firft entrance, he is treated with the fight of a large green field, fcattered over with a few ftraggling trees, and verged with a confufed border of little fhrubs and flowers; upon farther infpection, he finds a little ferpentine path, twining in regular effes amongst the fhrubs of the border, upon which he is to go round, to look on one fide at what he has already feen, the large green field; and on the other fide at the boundary, which is never more than a few yards from him, and always obtruding upon his fight: from time to time he perceives a little feat or temple ftuck up against the wall; he rejoices at the difcovery, fits down, refts his wearied limbs, and then reels on again, curfing the line of beauty, till spent with fatigue, half roafted by the fun, for there is never any shade, and tired for want of entertainment, he refolves to fee no more: vain refolution! there is but one path; he must either drag on to the end, or return back by the tedious way he came.

< Such is the favourite plan of all our fmaller gardens and our larger works are only a repetition of the small ones; more green fields, more fhrubberies, more ferpentine walks, and more feats; like the honeft batchelor's feaft, which confifted in nothing but a multiplication of his own dinner; three legs of mutton and turneps, three roafted geese, and three buttered apple-pies.'

Our difcerning Readers, who are acquainted with the most approved pleasure-grounds of this country, will perceive nothing in this picture but a wild exaggeration, and a boundless paffion for that endless and incongruous variety, which, deviating from Nature and Simplicity, has fixed its gorgeous refidence in the glittering gardens of the Eaft. Does his defcription fuit the royal gardens at Richmond? Is it applicable to the manner of Kent; or to any of Brown's defigns? In a word, is it a fair reprefentation of any one garden in England, defigned by an artist of any eminence? Perhaps, indeed, Sir William has even

deigned

deigned to aim this fhaft at the humble Lefowes, the feat of the late ingenious and modeft Shenftone: but the grounds of Mr. Snenftone were not defigned for a garden.

in Europe, the advances which have been made in science and in literature, have refined the tafte of its inhabitants, to a degree that is to be found in no other quarter of the world; but with refpect to the Chinese, if we except politics, they have not made an accurate and comprehenfive progrefs in any branch of knowledge or the fine arts. In painting they are clumfy and aukward; void of invention, and ignorant of proportion. To philofophy they are entire ftrangers; and with respect to polite learning, they have that rudenefs and indelicacy which is characteristic of men in an imperfect ftate of civilization. But, with all these disadvantages, this people, in the opinion of our Author, have brought gardening to fuch perfection as is altogether unknown to the Europeans. Without tafte, they have yet been able to cultivate an art which chiefly depends on tale; and the most enlightened nations are, in this respect, in the condition of barbarians!

We fhall not enter into the difpute, whether or not our Author hath ever perfonally vifited the interior parts of China; but be this as it may, certain it is that the delicacy of the Chinese, in relation to foreigners, is extreme; and, on this account, it is not natural to fuppofe that, in oppofition to the laws, they admitted him to their familiarity and favour, and allowed him. to wander in their retirements and pleasure grounds. Indeed he candidly acknowledges himself to have been obliged to others * for part of his materials; and he has made not a little ufe of Father Attiret's account of the Emperor of China's gardens near Pekin, of which an abftract is to be found in the 7th volume of our Review, and the whole may be seen in Dodfley's Fugitive Pieces.

The great purpose, in ornamental gardening, is, undoubtedly, to excite agreeable fenfations in the mind, and to prevent it from falling into languor through the want of variety; but, in purfuit of this laft point, the defigners of the Chinese gardens are chiefly intent on producing furprize, and even the painful emotions of terror! To this end they contrive caverns, they form gloomy woods, and they procure monstrous animals and reptiles to inhabit them. In general, too, the vast extent of their gardens gives birth to a variety of feelings which, not growing out of each other, distract instead of delighting the

* Pref. p. viii. he fays, The following account of the Chinese manner of gardening is collected from my own obfervations in China, from converfations with their artists, and remarks transmitted to me, at different times, by travellers."

spectator.

fpectator. His eye is filled; but he either fees objects in confufion, or his mind is fatigued with a rapid fucceffion of difcordant fenfations. The profufion of their ornaments, too, it may be obferved, feems to be a proof that they are, in a great measure, deftitute of genius; and only ferves to cover their want of invention, and of art.-If the leffons of our Author fhould be followed, and if the gardening of China could poffibly be introduced into England, Nature would, in many inftances, be violated, in order to produce whatever is moft hideous and deformed.

The following defcriptions, in which our Differtator feems to enjoy himself, will afford our Readers a fpecimen of Chinele connoiffeurship in gardening; and, at the fame time, give them an idea of his literary merit. They will also serve as a proper fupplement to what we have already extracted (in the volume of our Review above referred to) from Sir Harry Beaumont's tranflation of F. Attiret's Narrative.

:: Their scenes of terror are compofed of gloomy woods, deep vallies inacceffible to the fun, impending barren rocks, dark caverns, and impetuous cataracts rushing down the mountains from all parts. The trees are ill formed, forced out of their natural directions, and feemingly torn to pieces by the violence of tempefts: fome are thrown down, and intercept the courfe of the torrents; others look as if blafted and fhattered by the power of lightening: the buildings are in rujns; or half confumed by fire, or fwept away by the fury of the waters: nothing remaining entire but a few miferable huts difperfed in the mountains, which ferve at once to indicate the exiftence and wretchedness of the inhabitants. Bats, owls, vultures, and every bird of prey flutter in the groves; wolves, tigers, and jackalls, howl in the forefts; half-famifhed animals wander upon the plains; gibbets, croffes, wheels, and the whole apparatus of torture, are feen from the roads; and in the most difmal recefles of the woods, where the ways are rugged and overgrown with weeds, and where every object bears the marks of depopulation, are temples dedicated to the king of vengeance, deep caverns in the rocks, and defcents to fubterraneous habitations, overgrown with brushwood and brambles; near which are placed pillars of ftone, with pathetic defcriptions of tragical events, and many horrid acts of cruelty, perpetrated there by outlaws and robbers of former times: and to add both to the horror and fublimity of thefe fcenes, they fometimes conceal in cavities, on the fummits of the highest mountains, founderies, lime-kilns, and giafs-works; which fend forth large volumes of flame, and continued columns of

A literary name, affumed by the late Mr. Spence.

thick

thick fmoke, that give to thefe mountains the appearance of volcanoes.

Their furprizing, or fupernatural fcenes, are of the romantic kind, and abound in the marvellous; being calculated to excite in the minds of the fpectators, quick' fucceffions of oppofite and violent fenfations. Sometimes the paffenger is hurried by steep defcending paths to fubterraneous vaults, divided into apartments, where lamps, which yield a faint glimmering light, difcover the pale images of ancient kings and heroes, reclining on beds of ftate; their heads are crowned with garlands of stars, and in their hands are tablets of moral fentences: flutes, and foft harmonious organs, impelled by fubterraneous waters, interrupt, at ftated intervals, the filence of the place, and fill the air with folemn melody.

Sometimes the traveller, after having wandered in the dusk of the foreft, finds himself on the edge of precipices, in the glare of day-light, with cataracts falling from the mountains around, and torrents raging in the depths beneath him; or at the foot of impending rocks, in gloomy vallies, overhung with woods, on the banks of dull moving rivers, whofe fhores are covered with fepulchral monuments, under the fhade of willows, laurels, and other plants, facred to Manchew, the genius of forrow.

His way now lies through dark paffages cut in the rocks, on the fides of which are receffes, filled with coloffal figures of dragons, infernal fiends, and other horrid forms, which hold in their monftrous talons, myfterious, cabaliftical sentences, infcribed on tables of brafs; with preparations that yield a conftant flame; ferving at once to guide and to aftonifh the paflenger: from time to time he is furprized with repeated fhocks of electrical impulfe, with fhowers of artificial rain, or fudden violent gufts of wind, and inftantaneous explofions of fire; the earth trembles under him, by the power of confined air; and his ears are fucceffively ftruck with many different founds, produced by the fame means; some resembling the cries of men in torment; others the roaring of bulls, and howl of ferocious animals, with the yell of hounds, and the voices of hunters; others are like the mixed croaking of ravenous birds; and others imitate thunder, the raging of the fea, the explofion of cannon, the found trumpets, and all the noife of war.

of

His road then lies through lofty woods, where ferpents and lizards of many beautiful forts crawl upon the ground, and where innumerable monkies, cats, and parrots, clamber upon the trees, and intimidate him as he paffes; or through flowery thickets, where he is delighted with the, finging of birds, the harmony of flutes, and all kinds of foft inftrumental mufic: fometimes, in this romantic excurfion, the patienger finds him

felf

felf in extenfive receffes, furrounded with arbours of jeffamines vine, and roses, where beauteous Tartarean damfels, in loofe tranfparent robes, that flutter in the air, prefent him with rich wines, mangoftans, ananas, and fruits of Quangfi; crown him with garlands of flowers, and invite him to tafte the fweets of retirement, on Perfian carpets, and beds of camufathkin down.

These enchanted fcenes always abound with water-works, fo contrived as to produce many furprizing effects; and many fplendid pieces of fcenery. Air is likewife employed with great fuccefs, on different occafions; not only for the purposes abovementioned, but likewife to form artificial and complicated echoes fome repeating the motion of the feet, fome the rustling of garments; and others the human voice, in many different tones: all which are calculated to embarrass, to furprize, or to terrify the paffenger in his progress.

All forts of optical deceptions are alfo made ufe of; such as paintings on prepared furfaces, contrived to vary the representations as often as the fpectator changes place: exhibiting, in one view, groupes of men; in another, combats of animals; in a third, rocks, calcades, trees, and mountains; in a fourth, temples and colonades; and a variety of other pleafing fubjects. They likewife contrive pavements and incrustations for the walls of their apartments, of Mofaic work, composed of many pieces of marble, feemingly thrown together without order or defign; which, when feen from certain points of view, unite in forming lively and exact reprefentations of men, animals, buildings, and landscapes; and they frequently introduce pieces of architecture, and even whole profpects in perfpective; which are formed by introducing temples, bridges, veffels, and other fixed objects, leffened as they are more diftant from the points of view, by giving greyish tints to the diftant parts of the compofition; and by planting there trees of a fainter colour, and fmaller growth, than thofe that appear in the fore ground: thus rendering confiderable in appearance, what in reality is trifling.

The Chinese artists introduce into thefe enchanted feenes, all kinds of fenfitive, and other extraordinary trees, plants, and flowers. They keep in them a furprizing variety of monstrous birds, reptiles, and animals, which they import from diftant countries, or obtain by croffing the breeds. Thefe are tamed by art; and guarded by enormous dogs of Tibet, and African giants, in the habits of magicians.'

up

With respect to ftyle, this production is, in general, well written; although it appears, in fome inftances, to be wrought with a laboured correctnefs, which feldom accompanies the elegance that is feen in the performances of thofe free and eafy writers who poffefs the happy art of expreffing their thoughts naturally,

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