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Repton, Humphry, 1752-1818 / Fragments on the theory and practice of landscape gardening: including some remarks on Grecian and Gothic architecture, collected from various manuscripts, in the possession of the different noblemen and gentlemen, for whose use they were originally written; the whole tending to establish fixed principles in the respective arts
(1816)
Fragment XXVII. Gardens of Ashridge, pp. [137]-140
Page [137]
FRAGMENT XXVII. GARDENS OF* ASHRIDGE. Or all the subjects on which I have been consulted, few have excited so much interest in my mind as the Plan for these Gardens. This may partly be attributed to the importance and peculiar circumstances of the place, but perhaps more espe- cially to its'being the youngest favourite; the child of my age and declining powers: when no longer able to undertake the more extensive plans of Landscape, I was glad to contract my views within the narrow circle of the Garden, independent of its accompaniment of 'distant scenery. The large and magnificent Palace recently erected in his best style of Gothic Architecture by James Wyatt, presents two fronts of more than six hundred feet, of beautiful stone, by a depth of one hundred and thirty to one hundred and seventy feet' from north to south; and from the richness of its orna- ments, and the" quantity of its mass, it must be considered as one of the most splendid specimens of wealth recently ex- pended under the guidance of taste. Ii may perhaps be asked by the fastidious Antiquary, whe- ther the whole Edifice most resembles a Castle, an Abbey, or a Collegiate Pile. To which may be given this simple answer: It T
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