Garden History - Location--View

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The view was the overall appearance of the landscape surrounding a house or a garden. It was one of the most important considerations when chosing a site for a dwelling in the 18th century, as we learned in the earlier posting Location, Location, Location...

We have seen in earlier postings that the words command and view were often used together, see Location--Commanding Views and Prospects. Here are a few more references to the term view as it visually connects the overall relationship between a dwelling or garden with the topography around it.

The Garden Facade of Mount Clare near Baltimore, Maryland. It faces downhill toward the Patapsco River which emptys into Baltimore Harbor.
Virginian Mary Ambler visited Mount Clare, the home of Charles Carroll and Margaret Tilghman Carroll in Baltimore, Maryland, in 1770, writing, The House where this Gentn & his Lady reside in the Sumer stands upon a very High Hill & has a fine view of Petapsico River You step out of the Door into the Bowlg Green from which the Garden Falls & when You stand on the Top of it there is such a Uniformity of Each side as the whole Plantn seems to be laid out like a Garden.
Margaret Tilghman Carroll at the Garden Facade of Mount Clare by Charles Willson Peale.

In 1771, the public commercial grounds called Vauxhall Gardens in New York City was mentioned in the New York Gazette and Weekly Mercury, The Commodious house and large gardens...known by the name of VAUXHALL...having a very extensive view both up and down the North River.
New York City's Vauxhall Gardens.
English officer Lt. John Enys visited Boston, Massachusettes, in 1787, noting that, After Dinner we took a walk on the Mall...From hence we went to Beacon Hill from whence we had a Charming View of the town and harbour...there are a number of houses situated on Beacon hill which stand high...That of Governor Hancock stands the most conspicuous just at the top of the common with a full view of the Mall before it besides its distant views of the harbour and adjacent country.

1768 Sidney L. Smith after Christian Remick A Prospective View of Part of the Commons 1902 after a drawing from 1768 Engraving Concord Museum MA

In 1787, a visitor to New Bern, North Carolina, reported that the Governor's "palace is situated with one front to the River Trent and near the Bank, and commands a pleasing view of the Water."

When he visited in January, 1788, Governor John Eager Howard's Belvedere at Baltimore, Maryland, The Seat of Colol. Howard which ...has a charming view of the Water fall at a Mill, a long Rapid below it, a full View of the town of Baltimore and the Point with the shipping in the harbour, the Bason and all the Small craft.

1796 George Beck Detail of The View of Baltimore from Governor John Eager Howard's Garden Park. Maryland Historical Society, Baltimore.

Englishman Thomas Twining visited Governor John Eager Howard's Belvedere in Baltimore, Maryland, in 1788, I walked this morning to breakfast with Colonel Howard at Belvidere... Situated upon the verge of the descent upon which Baltimore stands, its grounds formed a beautiful slant towards the Chesapeake...The spot, thus indebted to nature and judiciously embellished, was as enchanting with in its own proper limits as in the fine view which extended far beyond them. The foreground presented luxurious shrubberies and sloping lawns: the distance, the line of the Patapsco and the country bordering on Chesapeak Bay. Both the perfections of the landscape, its near and distant scenery, were united in the view from the bow-window of the noble room in which breakfast was prepared, with the desire, I believe, of gratifying me with this exquisite prospect.

Six years later, visitors were still impressed with the view from Governor Howard's property in Baltimore, Maryland. Moreau de St. Mery wrote of Governor John Eager Howard's Belvedere in 1794, Its elevated situation; its grove of trees; the view from it, which brings back memories of European scenes; all these things together fill every true Frencman with pleasure and regret.
In 1789, Geographer Jedidiah Morse wrote of Nassau Hall at Princeton, New Jersey, The view from the college balcony is extensive and charming.

Detail of Nassau Hall at Princeton, New Jersey in 1764.

Abigail Adams, the wife of John Adams, wrote in 1790, of Bush Hill in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, A variety of fine fields of wheat and grass are in front of the house, and, on the right hand, a pretty view of the Schuylkill presents itself.

William Hamilton's Bush Hill in Philadelphia

Around 1734, the Penn family gave attorney Andrew Hamilton land in payment for legal services. In 1740, he built Bush Hill on the property. Vice President John Adams and his wife lived in the house in 1790 & 1791. During Philadelphia's yellow fever epidemic of 1793, a quarantine hospital was set up in the mansion.

Fairmount Park, Philadelphia. August Köllner, Bush Hill and Cholera Hospital.

When Moreau de St. Mery visited the New York in the 1790s, he wrote, In America almost everything is sacrificed to the outside view...The elevated situation of these country residences, in addition to being healthy, gives them the advantage of a charming view which includes New York and the nearby islands, principally Governor's Island, and is constantly enlivened by the passing of the boats which ply on both rivers.

In 1793, Rev. John Spooner described David Meade's Maycox in Prince George's County, Virginia, These grounds contain about twelve acres, laid out on the banks of the James river...which open as many pleasing views of the river. Rev. John Jones Spooner's papers are at the College of William & Mary Swem Library showing his election to the American Academy of Arts & Sciences, and his installation as minister to Martins Brandon Parish, Prince George County, Virginia.

David Meade's terraced gardens sat directly across the river from the terraced gardens of Westover, almost a mirror image of two landscapes divided by the river with its walled riverwalk. The houses were about a mile apart. The view from either house would have been beautiful.

Thomas Birch, Southeast View of “Sedgeley Park,” the Country Seat of James Cowles Fisher, Esq., about 1819.

Sedgley Park was built in 1799, near Philadelphia, by merchant William Cramond. It was one of the earliest Gothic influenced houses in America. A contemporary remarked "The natural advantages of Sedgley Park are not frequently equalled, even upon the banks of the Schuylkill. From the height upon which the mansion is erected it commands an interesting and extensive view. The scenery around is of unusual beauty, but its character is altogether peaceful and quiet."

In 1808, William Birch wrote of John Penn's Solitude in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, The flower garden was distant from the house, reached by a circuitous path which took in as many as possible of the best points of view.

Solitude in Fairmount Park in Philadelphia.

Solitude was built as a quiet retreat on the west bank of the Schulykill River. The most English of the country seats built along the river, Solitude was built by John Penn, "the poet," a grandson of William Penn, the founder of Pennsylvania. Today it is in the center of the Philadelphia Zoo, where it serves as administrative headquarters.

William Birch, "Solitude in Pennsylvana. Belonging to Mr. Penn." 1809.

Elbridge Gerry described the White House in Washington D. C. in 1813, A door opens at each end, one into the hall, and opposite, one into the terrace from whence you have an elegant view of all the rivers.

1803 White House [View from Blodgett's Hotel to the White House.] by Nicholas King in the Huntington Library, San Marino, California.

18C Garden Location - Prospect

A prospect was an extensive view out into the landscape, which, as we learned in an earlier posting Location, Location, Location, many colonial gentry felt was important to consider when picking a site for a dwelling or garden in the 18th century American landscape.

For unparalleled enthusiasm for the beauty of the colonial American countryside, my favorite quote for this term is by Thomas Hancock (1702-1764) of Boston, The Kingdom of England don't afford so Fine a Prospect as I have.
View of the Hancock House in Boston near the State House.

The full quote of Thomas Hancock in Massachusettes, in 1736, was My Gardens all Lye on the South Side of a hill, with the most Beautifull Assent to the Top & it is Allowed on all hands the Kingdom of England don't afford so Fine a Prospect as I have both of Land and water.

Years later, British Lt. John Enys wrote of Governor Hancock's house in 1787, ...there are a number of houses situated on Beacon hill which stand high...elegant prospects particularly at high water. That of Governor Hancock stands the most conspiculus just at the top of the common with a full view of the Mall before it besides its distant views of the harbour and adjacent country.

In 1733, Willliam Byrd wrote of his view when approaching a house in Virginia, There is scarce a shrub in view to intercept your prospect, but grass as high as a man on horseback.

In the South Carolina Gazette in 1734, a notice was placed for property for sale in Charleston, South Carolina,To Be Let or Sold...on an island (with)...an entire prospect of the Harbor.

Eliza Lucas Pinckney wrote in 1743, of William Middleton's Crow-Field in South Carolina near Charleston, ...a large fish pond with a mount rising out of the middle -- the top of which is level with the dwelling house and upon it is a roman temple. On each side of this are other large fish ponds properly disposed which form a fine prospect of water from the house.
Crowfield Lake in South Carolina.This description by Eliza Lucas Pinckney has proved quite accurate. An archaeological study conducted at Crowfield in the 1980's located most of the landscape and garden elements described in her letter.

In 1749, the South Carolina Gazette of Charleston noted, Belonging to Alexander Gordon...From the house Ashley and Cooper rivers are seen, and all around are visto's and pleasant prospects.

In the same year, but much further north, Peter Kalm wrote of the College of Jesuits in Quebec, Canada, The afternoon I visited...the priests...They have a great house, built of stone... a fine garden ...the prospect from hence is the finest in Quebec.

Hannah Callender wrote in her diary in 1762, of William Peters' Belmont near Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, A broad walk of English cherry trees leads down to the river. The doors of the house opening opposite admit a prospect of the length of the garden over a broad gravel walk to a large handsome summer house on a green...One avenue gives a fine prospect of the city.
View of Philadelphia from Belmont "a fine prospect of the city" by August Kollner in 1878.

In 1773, Josiah Quincy wrote in his journal while visiting Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Dined with the celebrated Pennsylvania Farmer, John Dickenson Esqr, at his country seat about two and one-half miles from town...his gardens, green-house, bathing-house, grotto, study, fish pond...vista, through which is distant prospect of Delaware River.

New England tutor Philip Vickers Fithian wrote of Mount Airy in Virginia, in 1774, He has also a large well formed, beautiful Garden, as fine in every Respect as any I have seen in Virginia...From this House there is a good prospect of the River Rapahannock, which opposite here is about two miles across.  The land where Mount Airy is situated was owned by the Tayloe family of Virginia for over 100 years when Colonel John Tayloe II, a 4th generation tobacco planter, began construction of the house. The project was started around 1748 with completion in 1758.

Mount Airy in Virginia. Mount Airy owns a commanding view of the Rappahannock River valley perched upon a small hill looking westward towards the town of Tappahannock, which was founded in 1608 by Captain John Smith.

President John Adams noted in his diary in 1777, of William Lux's Chatsworth in Baltimore, Maryland, The seat is named Chatsworth, and an elegant one it is -- the large garden enclosed in lime and before the yard two fine rows of large cherry trees which lead out to the public road. There is a fine prospect about it. Mr. Lux lives like a prince. The grounds included an enclosed 164 ' by 234' terraced garden which fell toward the Baltimore harbor.
William Lux's Chatsworth in Baltimore, Maryland. By the time this map was drawn, Lux's estate had been sold and had become a public pleasure garden called Gray's Gardens. Map detail fromCartographer Charles Varle & Engraver Francis Shallus, Warner and Hann's "Plan of the City and Environs of Baltimore, Respectfully dedicated to the Mayor, City Council & Citizens thereof by the Proprietors," 2nd edition (Baltimore, 1801; 1st 1799, drawn in 1797).

Ebenezer Hazzard wrote from Stafford, Virginia in 1777, The Steel Manufactory is situate on a high Hill which commands a beautiful and extensive Prospect.

The Rev. Mannasseh Cutler viewed Robert Morris' The Hills near Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in the 1780s, giving this report, ...the gardens and walks are extensive, and the villa...has a...prospect down the Schuylkill.
Lemon Hill, earlier The Hills, in Fairmont Park, Philadelphia.

From 1770 to 1799, Lemon Hill was known The Hills, home of Robert Morris, Declaration signer & a major financier of the Revolution. He later went bankrupt from over-the-top land speculation; and Philadelphia merchant Henry Pratt purchased his property at a sheriff's sale in 1799. The present house was built in that year. Pratt planted lemon trees in Morris's surviving greenhouse & the estate became known as Lemon Hill.

In 1783, at Westover on the James River in Virginia, Thomas Lee Shippen noted, an extensive prospect of James River and of all the Country and some Gentlemen's seats on the other side.
Westover after the Civil War in 1869. Corcoran, Washington, D.C.

The next year, Enys wrote of Governor John Eager Howard's Belvedere at Baltimore, Maryland, ...here are some very Charming prospects from some of the Hills, among the best from the Seat of Colol. Howard...a full View of the town of Baltimore and the Point with the shipping in the harbour, the Bason and all the Small craft, with a very distant prospect down the river towards the Chesapeake Bay. The whole terminated by the surrounding Hills forms a fine Picture.
The park just outside Governor John Eager Howard's Belvedere in Baltimore, Maryland, where visitors could stroll and take advantage of the view down to the Baltimore harbor. 1828. Maryland Historical Society in Baltimore.

Englishman Thomas Twining wrote in 1788, of visiting Governor John Eager Howard's Belvedere in Baltimore, Maryland, I walked this morning to breakfast with Colonel Howard at Belvidere... Situated upon the verge of the descent upon which Baltimore stands, its grounds formed a beautiful slant towards the Chesapeake...The spot, thus indebted to nature and judiciously embellished, was as enchanting with in its own proper limits as in the fine view which extended far beyond them. The foreground presented luxurious shrubberies and sloping lawns: the distance, the line of the Patapsco and the country bordering on Chesapeak Bay. Both the perfections of the landscape, its near and distant scenery, were united in the view from the bow-window of the noble room in which breakfast was prepared, with the desire, I believe, of gratifying me with this exquisite prospect.

Thomas Anbury wrote of the Virginia house he was visiting early in 1789, The house that we reside in...(has) a prospect of near thirty miles around it.

In 1790, William Bentley recorded in his diary about Saltonstall Seat in Haverhill, Massachusettes, the elegant Seat...has about 30 acres of land, an ancient row of Elms, and Buttons, and most engaging Prospect of the River and adjacent country.

In 1793, Patrick Campbell wrote of Mr. McIntyre's house at Albany, New York, I went along with Mr. McIntyre from Albany to his house...we ascended a high hill...which commands a fine prospect of the country all around.

Duc de La Rochefoucauld-Liancourt, Francois, visiting in 1795, described William Hamilton's Woodlands in Philadelphia, Woodlands ...commands an excellent prospect, but is not to be admired for anything else...in an adjoining hot house Mr. Hamilton rears plants procured at great expence from all parts of the world.
The Woodlands by William Strickland after William Birch, ca. 1809.

In 1799, Isaac Weld passed through Washington, D. C. and noted of the White House, The house for the residence of the president...is situated on a rising ground not far from the Patowmac, and (has) a most beautiful prospect of the river, and of the rich country beyond it.
Detail of the White House in an 1820 painting of Washington City, by Baroness Hyde Neuville.

In 1804, at Monticello in Virginia, Thomas Jefferson wrote, The ground between the upper & lower roundabouts to be laid out in lawns & clumps of trees, the lawns opening so as to give advantageous catches of prospect to the upper roundabout. Vistas from the lower roundabout to good portions of prospect walks in this style [diagram], winding up the mountain.
Thomas Jefferson's Monticello in the Virginia hills above Charlottesville in 1826.

Bernard M'Mahon wrote in The American Gardener's Calendar in 1806, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, ...regular terraces either on natural eminences of forced ground were often introduced... for the sake of prospect.

Many visitors commented on the prospect at Mount Vernon in Virginia. Andrew Burnaby wrote in 1759, of Mount Vernon, The house is most beautifully situated upon a very high hill on the banks of the Potomac; (with)...a noble prospect of water, of cliffs, of woods, and plantations.
Mount Vernon by J Wiess in 1797, two years before George Washington's death.

In 1788, at Mount Vernon, Jacques Pierre Brissot de Warville noted, This house overlooks the Potomack, enjoys an extensive prospect.
Birdseye view of Mount Vernon.

In the same year, Enys also visited Mount Vernon and wrote, The front by which we entered had a Gras plot before it with a road round it for Carriages planted on each side with a number of different kinds of Trees among the rest some Weeping Willows which seem to flourish very well. One the one side of this stands the Garden, green house &c. From hence is one of the most delightful prospects I ever beheld.
View of Mount Vernon walking up the hill from the Potomac River.

William Loughton Smith recorded in his journal about Mount Vernon which sits south of Alexandria, Virginia, I hardly remember to have been so struck with a prospect...the view extends up and down the river a considerable distance, the river is about two miles wide, and the opposite shore is beautiful...embracing the magnificence of the river with the vessels sailing about; the verdant fields, woods, and parks.
Mount Vernon from the Potomac River.

John Foster Augustus described Mount Vernon, in 1813, Stands on the brow of a steep bank that overhangs the Potomac, of which there is a fine extensive prospect from the lawn.

Location--Eminence

American gentry often were said to have sited their houses on an eminence, a lofty or elevated position on which a dwelling or garden was placed in the 18th century.

In 1733, Willliam Byrd wrote in Virginia, Towards the woods there is a gentle ascent, till your sight is intercepted by an eminence, that overlooks the whole landscape.

The Rev. Mannasseh Cutler viewed, Robert Morris' The Hills near Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in the 1780s, giving this report, ...the gardens and walks are extensive, and the villa, situated on an eminence.
From Philadelphia a View of Lemon Hill (the house built on the site of Robert Morris's The Hills) by William Groombridge (1748-1811).

In his 1788 description of the area around Mount Vernon, Virginia, Enys noted, The Hills around it are covered with plantations some of which have Elegant houses standing on them all of which being situated on Eminences form very beautiful Objects for each Other.
View across the Potomac River from the porch at Mount Vernon.

Thomas Anbury wrote of the Virginia house he was visiting early in 1789, The house that we reside in is situated upon an eminence.

William Loughton Smith wrote in his journal on April 21, 1791, of Governor John Eager Howard's Belvedere in Baltimore, Maryland, The main street is a mile in length...and ascends gradually to a fine plain above the Town, which was intended for the seat of Congress had Baltimore been chosen. This land belongs to Colonel, now Governor Howard...From the brow of the eminence... is a grand prospect back of the city
Cartographer Charles Varle & Engraver Francis Shallus, Warner and Hann's "Plan of the City and Environs of Baltimore, Respectfully didecated to the Mayor, City Council & Citizens thereof by the Proprietors," 2nd edition (Baltimore, 1801; 1st 1799, drawn in 1797).

A few years earlier, in January, 1788, Lt. John Enys reported on Governor John Eager Howard's Belvedere at Baltimore, Maryland, ...here are some very Charming propects from some of the Hills, among the best from the Seat of Colol. Howard which is situated on an eminence but is well covered by trees from all the cold winds, has a charming view.

Duc de La Rochefoucauld-Liancourt, Francois, visiting in 1795, described William Hamilton's Woodlands in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Woodlands...stands high, and is seen upon an eminence.
Isaac L. Williams. The Woodlands in 1880. Historical Society of Pennsylvania.

Bernard M'Mahon wrote in The American Gardener's Calendar in 1806, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, ...regular terraces either on natural eminences of forced ground were often introduced... for the sake of prospect.. being ranged single, others double, treble, or several, one above another, on the side of some considerable rising ground in theatrical arrangement. ...walls or other fences may not obstruct any desirable prospect either of the pleasure fields or the adjacent country.

Why Garden in the 18C? - To Display New Cultural Visions & Ambitions

Engraved by Joannes Kip (1653-1722). Ingleby Mannor the Seat of the Honble. Sr. Wm. Foulis Bartt. in ye County of Yorke. Walled & geometric.  From "Britannia Illustrata or Views of Several of the Queens Palaces and also of the Principal Seats of the Nobility & Gentry of Great Britain"

 Capability Brown (1716-1783) & Colonials respond to Formal English Landscapes 

What was Lancelot 'Capability' Brown (1716-1783) trying to change about the English countryside? Brown’s landscapes are straightforward.  His ‘landscape park’ was informal & ‘natural’ in character, eschewing straight lines & formal geometry. He designed open expanses of turf, irregularly scattered with individual trees & clumps & which were surrounded in whole & part by perimeter belts. His landscapes were ornamented with serpentine bodies of water & were usually provided with a rather sparse scattering of ornamental buildings. At existing gardens, walled enclosures were demolished, & avenues felled.

Apparently Brown wasn't the only Englishman tired of the formal, walled gardens.  Many hundreds of landscape parks had appeared in England by the time of Brown’s death in 1783, mainly created by imitators of his style. Many were entirely new creations, made at the expense of agricultural land; others represented modifications of existing deer parks. As scholars have long been aware, however, this kind of designed landscape did not come into existence, fully-formed, at the start of Brown’s career in the late 1740s & 50s.

The debt Brown owed to William Kent, in whose footsteps he followed at Stowe was obvious.  Brown’s parks represented an evolution of his essentially Arcadian tradition, which sought to recreate elements of idealized classical landscapes such as those in the paintings of Claude & Poussin.

Capability Brown, by Nathaniel Dance, ca. 1769

But early America was Arcadia. In North America, there was no reason to design new landscapes & gardens to recreate that region of ancient Greece isolated from the rest of the known civilized world, where citizens could live a simple, pastoral life. Instead, early Americans planned simple, geometric garden and landscape designs.

Most early American pleasure gardening gentry intentionally adopted a classic, geometric, balance of practical & ornamental gardens for their properties. Their landscape designs did often include avenues of trees leading to the plantation house, like rows of soldiers standing at attention. Capability Brown's new English garden design of the mid-18C with its open lawns & flowing lines in imitation of Nature was not particularly attractive to early Americans, who were busy carving an obvious order out of the "howling wilderness" that surrounded them.

In the Arcadia of America, the ordered, geometric garden offered sanctuary from the threat of wild nature & even escape from real or imagined barbarian outsiders. The great garden of the vast American frontier held some frightening connotations for many early colonists. New Englander Michael Wigglesworth wrote of it in 1662,

A waste & howling wilderness,
where none inhabited
But hellish fiends, & brutish men
That devils worshipped.

Garden historian Rosemary Verey speculated that early American gardens may have retained their geometric formality because “in England the countryside had already been tamed by years of husbandry, while in America each new plantation was surrounded by wild, untamed land, to be kept at bay, not emulated.” Others, such as Elizabeth Pryor, wrote that the alluring beauty of the natural landscape surrounding the shores of the Atlantic may help explain why gardeners were not seduced by the naturalistic style sweeping England.

The New World woods, continuously cleared of underbrush by Indian fires, already resembled the “improved” landscapes of Capability Brown. And, if one wished, it was easy to simulate a natural look in the personal landscapes these early Americans planned around their homes.  European travelers remarked that the groves, clumps, copses, & bosques so carefully cultivated in their countries, were more easily assembled in the colonies.

In 1788, Englishman Thomas Twining visiting Governor John Eager Howard's (1752-1827) country seat "Belvedere" near Baltimore wrote: “its grounds formed a beautiful slant toward the Chesapeake. From the taste with which they were laid out, It would seem that America is already possessed of a …Repton. The spot thus indebted to Nature and judiciously embellished was an enchanting within its own proper limits as in the fine view which extended far beyond them. The foreground possessed luxurious shrubberies and sloping lawns; the distance, the line of the Patapsco and he country bordering on the Chesapeake.” Another visitor to Belvedere claimed to “rejoice in the vistas and the sensations they inspire.”

However, keeping their gardens simple was important for other reasons to the British American coloniests.  The belief that they were consciously ridding themselves of ostentatious excess was a point of honor among many in 18th-century America. Immigrant garden author & nurseryman Bernard M’Mahon (1775-1816) understood this, as he promoted gardens for both use & ornament in his 1806 landmark book The American Gardener's Calendar. If one garden could achieve both goals, all the better. And further, if M'Mahon could appeal to those Americans who actually felt more secure with the old fashioned, strictly geometric gardens from England's past or to those who reacted against all this formality preferring a more natural look, he gladly would sell books, seeds, & plants to both tastes.

Engraved by Joannes Kip (1653-1722). Westwood in Worcestershire, the Seat of the Honble. Sr. John Pakington Barronet. Walled & geometric.  From "Britannia Illustrata or Views of Several of the Queens Palaces and also of the Principal Seats of the Nobility & Gentry of Great Britain"

From 1745 through 1756, the weekly game of the gentlemen in the Tuesday Club in Annapolis was to mock ostentation while trying to set the colony around them into some civilized order.  In an effort to explain this philosophy, Charles Carroll of Carrollton (1737-1832), who had gone to school in England & would later sign the Declaration of Indpendence, wrote to an English friend from Annapolis in 1772, “An attempt with us at grandeur or at magnificence is sure to be followed with something mean or ridiculous. Even in England where the affluence o individuals will support a thousand follies, what evils arise from the vanity & profuse excesses of the rich!”

Engraved by Joannes Kip (1653-1722). Ragly in the county of Warwik the Seat of Popham Conway Esq.  Walled & geometric. From "Britannia Illustrata or Views of Several of the Queens Palaces and also of the Principal Seats of the Nobility & Gentry of Great Britain"

Only weeks later Carroll’s father Charles Carroll of Annapolis (1702-1782) warned him of much the same trap, “Elegant & costly furniture may gratify our Pride & Vanity, they may excite the Praise & admiration of Spectators, more commonly their Envy, But it Certainly must give a Rationale.” Both of them felt it best to “avoid any appearance of…ostentation.” George Washington (1732-1799) wrote to be wary of ostentation in a letter to Bushrod Washington, on January, 15, 1783, "Do not conceive that fine clothes make fine men any more than fine feathers make fine birds."

Engraved by Joannes Kip (1653-1722). Saperton The Seat of Sr. Robert Atkyns. Walled & geometric.  From "Britannia Illustrata or Views of Several of the Queens Palaces and also of the Principal Seats of the Nobility & Gentry of Great Britain"

Thomas Jefferson & John Adams, after their tour of English gardens in 1786, expressed similar feelings. John Adams (1735-1826) wrote, “It will be long, I hope, before riding parks, pleasure grounds, gardens, & ornamented farms grow so much in fashion in America.”  In the same year, George Washington (1732-1799) wrote to the wife of Marquise de Lafayette (1757-1834) encouraging her to accompany her husband on a return visit to the new American republic. "You will see the plain manner in which we live; and meet the rustic civility, and you shall taste the simplicity of rural life."

Engraved by Joannes Kip (1653-1722). Sherborn The Seat of Sr. Ralph Dutton Bart. Walled & geometric.  From "Britannia Illustrata or Views of Several of the Queens Palaces and also of the Principal Seats of the Nobility & Gentry of Great Britain"

In 1783, Johann David Schoff traveled to Pennsylvania and wrote, "The taste for gardening is, at Philadelphia as well as throughout America, still in its infancy. There are not yet to be found many orderly and interesting gardens. Mr. Hamilton's near the city is the only one deserving special mention. Such neglect is all the more astonishing, because so many people of means spend the most part of their time in the country. Gardens as at present managed are purely utilitarian—pleasure-gardens have not yet come in, and if perspectives are wanted one must be content with those offered by the landscape, not very various, what with the still immense forests."

Engraved by Joannes Kip (1653-1722). Squerries at Westram in Kent.  Walled & geometric. From "Britannia Illustrata or Views of Several of the Queens Palaces and also of the Principal Seats of the Nobility & Gentry of Great Britain"

In American gardens a balance of useful plants & trees planted in a pleasing order was the ultimate goal. When Annapolis attorney John Beale Bordley (1727-1804) retired to Wye Island in the Chesapeake Bay, he was determined to become a self-sufficient patriot farmer.  Bordley substituted homemade beer for more ardent spirits imported from London; kept sheep for the wool; & grew his own hemp, flax, & cotton for clothing. He knew that American dependency on Britain was drawing to a close & wrote a friend in London, “ We expect to fall off more & more from your goods…we are using our old clothes & preparing new of our own manufacture, they will be coarse, but if we add just resentment to necessity, may not a sheepskin make a luxurious jubilee coat?”

Engraved by Joannes Kip (1653-1722). Syston the Seat of Samll. Trotman Esq. Walled & geometric.  From "Britannia Illustrata or Views of Several of the Queens Palaces and also of the Principal Seats of the Nobility & Gentry of Great Britain"

In 1789, Jedidiah Morse (1761-1826), noted clergyman & geographer, wrote of one country seat, “Its fine situation. . .the arrangement and variety of forest-trees - the gardens...discover a refined and judicious taste. Ornament and utility are happily united. It is, indeed, a seat worthy of a Republican Patriot.”

Engraved by Joannes Kip (1653-1722). Tortworth the Seat of Matthew Ducy Morton.Walled & geometric.  From "Britannia Illustrata or Views of Several of the Queens Palaces and also of the Principal Seats of the Nobility & Gentry of Great Britain"

Benjamin Henry Latrobe, upon his initial tour of America between 1795 & 1798, condescendingly noted the out-of-style classical influence prevalent in the Chesapeake. He wrote that the gardens at Mount Vernon were “laid out in squares, & boxed with great precision…for the first time again since I left Germany, I saw here a parterre, chipped & trimmed with infinite care into the form of a richly flourished Fleur de Lis: The expiring groans I hope of our Grandfather’s pedantry.”   Latrobe would certainly have shuttered at the fact, that both George Washington and the very wealthy Charles Carroll of Annapolis (1702-1782) planted vegetables next to their ornamental flowers in these little out-of-date geometric gardens.  George Washington's gardens at Mount Vernon were recently torn out & replanted to demonstrate this fact.

Engraved by Joannes Kip (1653-1722). Tutsham Hall the Seat of Edward Goulston Esqr. Walled & geometric. From "Britannia Illustrata or Views of Several of the Queens Palaces and also of the Principal Seats of the Nobility & Gentry of Great Britain" 

Charles Carroll of Annapolis (1702-1782) was one of the wealthiest men in the colonies, but he planted the geometric beds of his terraced gardens at his home in the capitol of Maryland with an eye toward practicality. Orderly squares filled with vegetables surrounded by low privet hedges decorated the flats of Carroll’s falls garden. Painter Charles Wilson Peale reported, "the Garden contains a variety of excellent fruit, and the flats are a kitchen garden."

Engraved by Joannes Kip (1653-1722). Upper Dowdeswell the Seat of Lionel Rich Esq.  Walled & geometric. From "Britannia Illustrata or Views of Several of the Queens Palaces and also of the Principal Seats of the Nobility & Gentry of Great Britain"

George Washington was once again warning of ostentation in a letter to George Steptoe Washington, on March 23, 1789. "A person who is anxious to be a leader of the fashion, or one of the first to follow it, will certainly appear in the eyes of judicious men to have nothing better than a frequent change of dress to recommend him to notice."

In the early Republic, many gardeners continued to strive for a balance of useful plants & trees & genteel design. On both town & country plots, most gentry, merchants, shopkeepers, & artisans planned gardens that were both practical & ornamental in simple, traditional, geometric patterns. This shared attitude helped shrink the distance between America’s landed gentry & its town merchants & craftsmen. It also helped demonstrate a new concept of government where "all men are created equal." (Of course, that did not extend to women until 1920.)

Engraved by Joannes Kip (1653-1722). Toddington The Seat of the Lord Tracy. Walled & geometric. From "Britannia Illustrata or Views of Several of the Queens Palaces and also of the Principal Seats of the Nobility & Gentry of Great Britain"

Francois Alexandre Frederic duc de La-Rochefoucauld-Liancourt visiting Drayton Hall in South Carolina in the late 1790s wrote, “In order to have a fine garden, you have nothing to do but to let the trees remain standing here & there, or in clumps, to plant bushes in front of then, & arrange the trees according to their height.” In England, the natural grounds movement owed part of its popularity to the fact that timber was getting scarce in the countryside. The British gentry planted their “natural grounds” with trees, that they needed to grow.

In the introduction to his 1808 book The Country Seats of the United States, Englishman William Russell Birch (1755-1834), who hoped to promote "taste" in America for both architecture & landscape design, saw the result of the American balance of ornament and utility, and he tried to explain it this way, "The comforts and advantages of a Country Residence, after Domestic accomodations are consulted, consist more in the beauty of the situation, than in the massy magnitude of the edifice: the choice ornaments of Architecture are by no means intended to be disparaged, they are on the contrary, not simply desirable, but requisite. The man of taste will select his situation with skill, and add elegance and animation to the best choice. In the United States the face of nature is so variegated; Nature has been so sportive and the means so easy of acquiring positions fit to gratify the most refined and rural enjoyment, that labour and expenditure of Art is not so great as in Countries less favoured."

Garden History - Ornaments - Statue

GARDEN STATUES

Surpisingly, garden statues appeared early in the British American colonies and became even more popular in the early republic. Statues stood in the gardens of the gentry and later in the century at public pleasure gardens, where patrons from all levels of society could enjoy their beauty and symbolism. And occasionally, craftsmen and artisans embellished the grounds around their house with statues as well.

One of England's earliest garden commentators, Francis Bacon, took a dim view of garden statues. Francis Bacon, (1561-1626), English philosopher, statesman, scientist, lawyer, jurist, & author, wrote in his 1625 Essayes or Counsels, Civill and Morall in the essay entitled Of Gardens. His essay coincided with the new North American settlements along the Atlantic coast.

Bacon felt that statues added nothing to a real garden except, perhaps, pretense. He wrote, "but it is nothing for great princes, that for the most part, taking advice with workmen, with no less cost set their things together, and sometimes add statues and such things, for state and magnificence, but nothing to the true pleasure of a Garden."

As early as 1718, Judge Sewall in Boston, Massachusettes, complained that, "Quickly after the wind rose to a prodigious height...It blew down the southernmost of my cherubim's heads at the Street Gates." And three years later in 1721, he regretfully reported, "Took down the northwardly cherubim's head, the other being blown down...I suppose ther have stood there near thirty years."

Around 1750, artist William Dering painted young George Booth in Virginia with statues flanking the young man and at the end of the walkway in the distance. Although these are certainly fanciful statues, it is not known if they were really in the landscape at that time. Unfortunately these details are from reproductions of these portraits, so visiting the museum is the only way to really evaluate each painting.

In 1754, New England preacher Ezra Stiles reported that Andrew and James Hamilton's Bush Hill in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania had a "very elegant garden, in which are 7 statues in fine Italian marble curiously wrot." Perhaps curiously wrot is the key phrase, because a year later, when Daniel Fisher visited the same garden, he reported that "It (did not) contain anything that was curious...a few very ordinary statues. A shady walk of high trees leading from the further end of the Garden looked well enough; but the Grass above knee high, thin and spoiling for the want of the Sythe." In 1790, when Abigail Adams visited Bush Hill in Philadelphia, she noted, "A beautiful grove behind the house, through which there is a spacious gravel walk, guarded by a number of marble statues, whose genealogy I have not yet studied." Charles Willson Peale painted these statues in his portrait of Mrs Robert Morris in the 1780s.

In 1760, William Williams portrayed Deborah Richmond in a garden with statues. An illustration of this painting is in the section of this blog describing garden alcoves.

Hannah Callender visited William Peters' garden at Belmont in 1762, near Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. She noted, "On the right you enter a labyrinth of hedge of low cedar and spruce. In the middle stands a statue of Apollo. In the garden are statues of Diana, Fame and Mercury with urns."

Around 1767, John Singleton Copley painted a fountain statue in Rebecca Boylston's portrait. Copley was known to use English prints as models for his work. And in 1783, he painted John Adams with a garden statue as well.

By 1772, statues of Roman gods Venus, Apollo, and Bacchus graced John Custis' garden in Virginia. Nearby in 1774, while visiting John Tayloe's garden in Mount Airy, Virginia, a young schoolmaster reported, "He has also a large well formed, beautiful Garden, as fine in every Respect as any I have seen in Virginia. In it stand four large beautiful Marble Statues."

Charles Willson Peale painted statues in several of his portraits. His 1770 portrait of John Beale Bordley and his 1772 painting of William Paca both pictured prominent statues not mentioned elsewhere in period records.

While statues sat in the middle of green squares, or flanked garden walks or sat on garden gates, others found more exotic positions. In 1791, Reverand William Bentley visited the garden of Boston merchant Joseph Barrell. "His garden is beyond any example I have soon. A young grove is growing in the background, in the middle of which is a pond, decorated with four ships at anchor, and a marble figure in the centre...The Squares are decorated with Marble figures as large as life." More modest statues began appearing in craftsmen's gardens as well. In 1795, in Annapolis, Maryland, silversmith William Faris noted, "In the evening Cut the Sage by the Statue."

Garden statues produced by both Amerian and European artists became more widely available in the last years of the 18th century. In 1796, Philadelphia newspaper advertised, "To be sold...Six elegant carved figures, the manufacture of an artist is this country, and made from materials of clay dug near the city, they are used for ornaments for gardens, or ballustrades, at the tops of houses or manels in the parlour, they are well burned and will stand any weather without being injured. and the represent Mars, and Minerva, Paris and Helen, A Male and Female Gardner."

By the end of the century, American gentry were coming up with ingenious places to place their ornamental statues. Many statues made it from garden to housetop roof. Margaret and Gerard Briscoe placed full sized statues perched on marble pedestals at the end of each row of apple trees in their orchard at Clover Dale in Frederick County, Maryland. Artist Charles Peale Polk painted her proudly seated before a view of her orchard with statues in 1799.

In 1801, Timothy Dexter placed statues around the wall of his house as well as on its roof in Newburyport, Massachusettes.
Garden statues were gaining in visibility in the early republic as owners of public pleasure gardens began reflecting the ideals and heros of the new nation as icons in their gardens. In 1798, at the Columbia Gardens in New York City, a visitor reported, "I have been to...the Columbia gardens...placed all around were marble busts, beautiful figures of Diana, Cupid and Venus." And soon other garden owners followed suit. A newspaper advertisement for the Mount Vernon Gardens in New York City boasted in 1800, "lately imported from Europe...nineteen statues...Socrates, Cicero, Cleopatra, Shakespeare, Milton...the illustrious and immortal Washington...and miscellaneous figures from Greek mythology."

Five years later, Vauxhall Gardens in New York City advertised, "procured from Europe a choice selection of Statues and Busts, mostly from the first models of Antiquity, and worthy the attention of Amateurs...Washington, Cicero, Ajax, Antonious (in two poses, Hannibla, the Belvidere Apollo (in four sizes), Venus, Hebe (in two poses), Hamilton, Demostenes, Plenty, Hercules, Time, Ceres, Security, Modesty, Addison, Cleopatra (in two poses), Niobe, Pompey in two poses, Pope, The Medici Apollo, and Thalia."

The public settings of these gardens occasionally invited mischief. In the same year, in Charleston, South Carolina, the Botanic Garden offered, "One Hundred Dollars Reward. On Thursday Evening last, after sun-set, some evil minded person, taking advantage of the Gardener's absence, knocked at the Gate, and on being admitted treated the servant insolently for not admitting him sooner; he went directly to the Statue of Mercury, which was standing in the middle of the Garden, and threw it down, by which means it is entirely destroyed. The man was well dressed."

Maryland's Revolutionary War officer John Eager Howard's home Belvedere on a hill in Baltimore, was noted for its magnificent gardens graced with statues, much as the gardens at the papal Belvedere of Julius II boasted statues during the Italian Renaissance.

In 1802, Eliza Southgate visited Hasket Derby in Salem, Massachusettes, and dramatically reported, "From the lower gate you have a fine perspective view of the whole range, rising gradually until the sight is terminated by a hermitage...The hermitage...was scarcely perceptible at a distance; a large weeping willow swept the roof with its brances and bespoke the melancholy inhabitant. We caught a view of the little hut as we advanced thro' the opening of the trees; it was covered with bark; a small low door, slightly latched immediately opened at our touch; a venerable old man [stone statue] was seated in the center with a prayer book in one hand while the other supported his cheek, and rested on an old table which, like the hermit, seemed moulding to decay...a tattered coverlet was spread over a bed of straw...I left him impressed with veneration and fear which the mystery of his situation seemed to create."
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