Whatever contributes to render the scenes of nature delightful, is amongst the subjects of gardening; and animate as well as inanimate objects, are circumstances of beauty or character. Several of these have been occasionally mentioned; others will readily occur; and nothing is unworthy of the attention of a gardener, which can tend to improve his compositions, whether by immediate effects, or by suggesting a train of pleasing ideas. The whole range of nature is open to him, from the parterre to the forest; and whatever is agreable to the senses or the imagination, he may appropriate to the spot he is to improve: it is a part of his business to collect into one place, the delights which are generally dispersed through different species of country.

But in this application, the genius of the place must always be particularly considered; to force it is hazardous; and an attempt to contradict it is always unsuccessful. The beauties peculiar to one character, cannot be transferred to its opposite; even where the characters are the same, it is difficult to copy directly from the one into the other; and by endeavouring to produce a resemblance of a scene which is justly admired, the proper advantages of the place, are often neglected for an imitation much inferior to the original. The excellence of the latter probably depends on the happy application of the circumstances to the subject; and the subjects of both are never exactly alike. The art of gardening therefore is not to be studied in those spots only where it has been exercised; though they are in this country very numerous, and very various: yet all together they contain but a small proportion of the beauties which nature exhibits; and unless the gardener has stored his mind with ideas, from the infinite variety of the country at large, he will feel the want of that number, which is necessary for choice; he will have none ready to apply to the subject immediately before him; and will be reduced to copy an imitation.