CHAPTER VII.

Gardens -- Pleasures of them -- Retrospective View of English Gardens -- Influence of our Imaginative Writers on their Character -- Writers before the Reign of Elizabeth -- the Roman Style of Gardens under the name of Italian, French and Dutch Gardens, prevalent till the 18th Century, overturned by the Writings of Addison, Pope, and Walpole, and by the Works of Bridgman, Kent, and Brown -- Gardens of Hampton Court, Nonsuch, Theobalds, etc., as described by Hentzner in 1598 -- the Old Style of Gardens appropriate to the Old Houses and the Character of the Times -- Advantages of the Prevalence of different Tastes at different Periods pointed out -- Laborious Lives and Travels of our earlier Gardeners and Botanists -- our Old Gardens interesting objects in different parts of the Kingdom -- their Classical Antiquity pleaded in their favour 67