Batty Langley (1696-1751, British)
New Principles of Gardening: or, The Laying Out and Planting Parterres, Groves, Wildernesses, Labyrinths, Avenues, Parks, &c. ...
London: Printed for A. Bettesworth and C. Hitch, 1739
Batty Langley is representative of an early eighteenth-century movement in landscape design which emphasized informal gardens with carefully varied, broken, naturalistic lines, which he called "regular irregularity." His solution in situations where one could not obtain clear views through garden to landscape was to install proto-Romantic ruins. From his explanation of the plates in New Principles:
Plates XIX, XX, and XXI are Views of the Ruins of Buildings, after the old Roman manner, to terminate such Walks that end in disagreeable Objects; which Ruins may either be painted upon Canvas, or actually built in that manner with Brick, and cover’d with Plaistering in Imitation of Stone… To demonstrate what Effects they have when placed to terminate Avenues, Walks, &c. I have put one of them at the end of an Avenue in Plate XXII.…
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