Observations on Modern Gardening, illustrated by Descriptions .. by [WHATELY, Thomas] - 1777

London: printed for T. Payne and Son, 1777. Hardcover. Fine. London, printed for T. Payne and Son, 1777 [fourth edition]/ 1770. Octavo, [viii], 257 pages. Contemporary full polished speckled calf with a contrasting title-label on the gilt-decorated spine; extremities slightly rubbed, boards slightly bowed; plain inner surfaces of the marbled endpapers and the last leaf (verso blank) are slightly foxed; essentially a fine copy with an armorial bookplate ('Mors Janua Vitae' - Death is the gate of [everlasting] life). 'Gardening, in the perfection to which it has been lately brought in England, is entitled to a place of considerable rank among the liberal arts. It is as superior to landskip [sic] painting, as a reality to a representation: it is an exertion of fancy: a subject for taste; and being released now from the restraints of regularity, and enlarged beyond the purposes of domestic convenience, the most beautiful, the most simple, the most noble scenes of nature are all within its province'. An influential and popular book, the 'most comprehensive work on the theory of landscape design developed by the natural school before the time of Humphrey Repton', according to Blanche Henrey ('British Botanical and Horticultural Literature before 1800').