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I might also add another argument against invisible Fences
in general (except in short glades), viz. that when they divide
a park from a garden, they separate two things which the mind
knows cannot be united.
In modern Gardening it has been deemed a principle to
exclude all view of Fences; but there are a certain class of
flowering plants which require support, and these should be
amply provided for in all ornamental gardens. The open trellis-
fence, and the hoops on poles over which creeping and climbing
plants are gracefully spread; give a richness to garden scenery
that no painting can adequately represent.
The novelty of this attempt to collect a number of Gardens,
differing from each other, may perhaps excite the critic's cen-
sure; but I will hope there is no more absurdity in collecting
Gardens of different styles, dates, characters, and dimensions,
in the same inclosure, than in placing the works of a Raphael
and a Teniers in the same cabinet, or books sacred and profane
in the same library. Perhaps, after all, the pleasure derived
from a Garden has some relative association with its evanescent
nature and produce: we view with more delight a wreath of
short-lived roses, than a crown of amaranth or everlasting flow-
ers. However this may be, it is certain, that the Good and Wise
of all ages have enjoyed their purest and most innocent' plea-
sures in a Garden, from the beginning 6f time, when the Father
of mankind was created in a Garden, till the fulness of time,
when HE, who often delighted in a Garden, was at last buried
-in one.