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.
没有什么景物比英国公园的壮丽景色更吸引人了。广阔的草地就像一块鲜明的绿毯伸展开来,到处都是巨树丛林,它们聚成一簇簇丰厚的树叶丛:茂盛的小树林和宽敞的林间空地,有鹿群静静走过;野兔跳进藏身之所;雉鸟突然展翅高飞;小溪流顺着天然曲折的道路蜿蜒前行,或延展成平镜般的湖泊——这个幽静的水塘映出颤动的树影,黄叶静静地躺在塘心,鳟鱼无惧地悠游于清水之中;而一些乡间的庙宇及林中的雕像,则因时间久远而变绿了,阴湿湿的,给这种隐蔽蒙上了一层古典圣洁的气氛。
这只不过是公园景观特色中的一个很小的部分。英国人装饰他们朴实的中产阶级生活时的那种创造性才智,才是最让我欣赏的。在有品位的英国人手中,最粗陋的住宅,前景不好而又贫乏的土地,也能成为一个小天堂。
在他(英国人)的手中,再贫瘠的土地也会变成可爱之地,而且看不到任何产生这种效果的艺术操作的迹象。对一些树的精心爱护和培育;对另一些树的谨慎的修剪;对娇嫩的植物和花朵的悉心分类;对鹅绒似的绿色草皮斜坡的引入;可以瞥见远处蔚蓝或银光闪烁水色的空隙??这一切都是以精巧的机智、无处不在又不露痕迹的勤勉来设计的,就像一位?家用神笔完成的一幅心爱之作。