The residence of people of fortune and refinement in the country has diffused a degree of taste and elegance in rural economy that descends to the lowest class. The very laborer, with his thatched cottage and narrow slip of ground, attends to their embellishment. The trim hedge, the grass, plot before the door, the little flower, bed bordered with snug box, the woodbine trained up against the wall, and hanging its blossoms about the lattice, the pot of flowers in the window, the holly, providently planted about the house, to cheat winter of its dreariness, and to throw in a semblance of green summer to cheer the fireside: all these bespeak the influence of taste, flowing down from high sources, and pervading the lowest levels of the public mind. If ever Love, as poets sing, delights to visit a cottage, it must be the cottage of an English peasant.
沒有什麽景物比英國公園的壯麗景色更吸引人了。廣闊的草地就像一塊鮮明的綠毯伸展開來,到處都是巨樹叢林,它們聚成一簇簇豐厚的樹葉叢:茂盛的小樹林和寬敞的林間空地,有鹿群靜靜走過;野兔跳進藏身之所;雉鳥突然展翅高飛;小溪流順著天然曲折的道路蜿蜒前行,或延展成平鏡般的湖泊——這個幽靜的水塘映出顫動的樹影,黃葉靜靜地躺在塘心,鱒魚無懼地悠遊於清水之中;而一些鄉間的廟宇及林中的雕像,則因時間久遠而變綠了,陰濕濕的,給這種隱蔽蒙上了一層古典聖潔的氣氛。
這隻不過是公園景觀特色中的一個很小的部分。英國人裝飾他們樸實的中產階級生活時的那種創造性才智,才是最讓我欣賞的。在有品位的英國人手中,最粗陋的住宅,前景不好而又貧乏的土地,也能成為一個小天堂。
在他(英國人)的手中,再貧瘠的土地也會變成可愛之地,而且看不到任何產生這種效果的藝術操作的跡象。對一些樹的精心愛護和培育;對另一些樹的謹慎的修剪;對嬌嫩的植物和花朵的悉心分類;對鵝絨似的綠色草皮斜坡的引入;可以瞥見遠處蔚藍或銀光閃爍水色的空隙??這一切都是以精巧的機智、無處不在又不露痕跡的勤勉來設計的,就像一位?家用神筆完成的一幅心愛之作。