Yet Brown's improvement possessed the double advantage of contributing, by the height of the wheels, to the safety of the Tree during the transmission; and, by materially increasing the dispatch, it proportionally diminished the cost of the pro cess. Notwithstanding the superior character, and elegant learning of Messrs Price and Knight, and the weight which may be allowed to their authority, it is impossible for us to conceive, that Brown was as destitute of genius and talents, as they would willingly persuade us. The idea is clearly disproved, by the prodigious extent of his reputation, and of the works in which he was employed.* It will not, therefore, be thought too much to say here, that his genius was of that aspiring and ardent sort, which fitted him rather for bold design, than minute detail, and patient investigation; and, as the character and properties of Trees formed a study belonging to objects of the latter class, it could not very long detain his attention. Besides, he perceived, that it was by no means applicable to the execution of great outlines of Wood, how useful soever and effective it might become for the foreground, and the middle distance of the landscape. Be this, however, as it may, it appears, that the art received no further improve *NOTE XIII. ment at his hands, and seemingly as little at those of his successors. Even the ingenious contrivance of Lord Fitzharding to multiply the roots of Trees, seems little to have attracted his notice. In transplanting, at the numerous places, which he improved or altered in England, this method was never resorted to. The process he followed was a very simple one, namely, to root up the Trees by the shortest possible method, and convey them, in the speediest way, to their several destinations. He preferred, however, to work with his Machine during frost, when earth, in masses greater or less, would adhere to the roots, and be readily lifted with them. As to severely defacing, and even pollarding the tops, he conceived, that it carried with it its own apology: And such seems still to be the general opinion of planters, down to the present period. These particulars, respecting the practice and the Machine of Brown, at one time the supreme dictator of taste in Landscape Gardening in England, were obtained from two of his pupils, the well-known Mr Thomas White, who succeeded to a great part of his business in the northern counties, and Mr James Robertson, who was sent down to Scotland, about 1750, to lay out Duddingston for the late Earl of Abercorn.* This task Robert *NOTE XIV. son performed with credit to himself, exhibiting all the faults, and the excellencies of his master. After this his first essay, and making some important changes at Hopetoun House, and on the Park at Dalkeith, he laid out Livingston, Dalhousie, Niddry, Whim, Moredun, Culzean, and other places in Mid-Lothian and Ayrshire; which, with the exception of Blairdrummond, were the earliest examples of Landscape Gardening in Scotland.* At all, or most of these places, Robertson introduced the knowledge of the Transplanting Machine, together with the method of employing it, as interesting to Landscape Gardening: But few particulars are recorded of the progress made by either art, on this side of the Tweed. To a nation not inconstant nor volatile, and certainly poor, when compared with their present condition, it was no very easy, nor grateful undertaking, to demolish, at once, their favourite terraces, their formal gardens, and other appendages of antient grandeur, for a new-fangled art, of which Price wittily said, that Horace had long since described it in three words; for its leading merit consists, in exchanging Squares and Parallelograms, for Circles and Ellipses; Mutat quadrata rotundis.† Loudon's Encyclopedia of Gardening, p. 79. When such was the only master, under whom the Art of Transplanting has been studied in Scotland, we shall not greatly wonder at the slender advances it has made, or rather at the ill success that has attended it, in more than half a century. In fact, it may be said, that it is, at this moment, in little better condition, as to either skill or science, than Robertson left it, threescore years since. This artist (according to the account given by Hayes of his own practice, which was borrowed from Robertson's) was not very nice in his selection of subjects, but took them indiscriminately, from close woods and open dispositions, just as either fell in his way; so that, if his method was bad, as we have already seen, his subjects must have been, at least, as bad as his method. As to the attempt to introduce a better, there is reason to think, that, more than thirty years since, I myself was probably the first planter, who made known in Scotland the mode of preparing the roots of Trees, as practised by Lord Fitzharding; and, I believe, it now passes, with many, under the name of my method, to the prejudice of the ingenious inventor. In a few years after the above period, Robertson was invited to Ireland, under high and distinguished patronage, viz. that of the Duke of Lein * Practical Treatise on Planting. ster, Mr Conolly, Mr Hayes of the Royal Irish Academy, and other persons of taste and fortune, leaving his business to be managed by his nephew George, and James Ramsay, one of the most promising of his pupils. Here also Robertson introduced the practice of removing large Trees, which, under his new employers, appears to have come considerably into fashion. The Machine of Brown was, of course, carried over with him to Ireland; and Mr Hayes, in his meritorious tract on Planting, and the Management of Woods, gives an account of the implement, and the style of working it, as then taught, which entirely coincides with that above described. Brown's vigorous and short-hand method of tearing up the Trees by the roots, and rapidly conveying them to their new destinations, captivated the lively fancy of the Irish planters. Mr Hayes is loud in its praise, and decidedly prefers the compendious process of the "Scottish Engineer," to the more elaborate preparations, and tedious contrivances of Evelyn and Fitzharding.* Thus, it happened oddly enough, that the Scotch, who themselves knew nothing of Transplanting, should give notable lessons in the art, and have the honour of introducing it to notice and popularity in the sister kingdom; Qui sibi semitam non sapiunt, alteri monstrant viam. * Prac. Treat. on Planting, p. 41, &c. |