The satire of these great writers contributed not a little to a revolution in English gardening. Bridgeman seems to have been the first to commence the wholesome work of destruction, and to introduce landscape gardening; and it is said that he was instigated to his labour by the very paper of Pope’s, in “The Guardian,” to which we have alluded. But Kent, at a later period, banished the old grotesque and ridiculous style, and established the new picturesque treatment. He laid out Kensington Gardens, and probably Claremont. Wright and Brown were also early artists in the new style, and deserve honourable mention for their exertions in the right direction. The former displayed his skill at Fonthill Abbey, the seat of Mr. Beckford; Brown was consulted at Blenheim, where he constructed the earliest artificial lake in the kingdom,--the work of a week. Nor must Shenstone, the poet, be forgotten. His attempt, towards 1750, to establish the rights of nature in his own ornamental farm at the Leasowes, places him fairly in the front rank of our rural reformers. Mathematical precision and the yoke of excessive art were thus cast off, and nature was allowed a larger extent of liberty and life. She was no longer tasked to imitate forms that detracted from her own beauty without giving grace to the imitation; but she was questioned as to the garb which it chiefly delighted her to wear, and answer being given, active steps were taken to comply with her will. Then came Knight and Price to carry out the goodly work of recovery and restoration. To them followed Mr. Humphrey Repton, the accomplished scholar under whose eye the gardens of Cobham Hall were planned, and under whose influence all the celebrated landscape-gardens of his time were fashioned. And as the result of the united labours of one and all, we have the irregularly-bounded pieces of water which delight the English eye, the shrubberies, the noble groups of trees, the winding walks, the gentle undulations, and pleasant slopes,--all which combined give a peculiar charm to our island landscapes, that is looked for in vain in fairer climates and on a more extended soil.