10 

 GAEDENING EOE NOOKS AND COENEES. 



BY THOMAS WILLIAMS, BATH LODGE, OEM SKIIIE. 



HT is it that the gardens of our villas and old-fashioned 

 houses and the hetter class of cottages afford more real 

 delight than the parterres and the highly ornamented 

 gardens of the mansion or the palace ? It is because 

 the latter display art avowed and studied, and the 

 former display taste, and elegance, and nature ! One is the stately 

 court lady, living and moving by rule and etiquette ; the other is the 

 easy, laughing, careless village damsel, with her hair all loose, hat 

 on one side, and ribbons either dangling or fluttering in the breeze. 

 The one is magnificent and grand, the other is amiable and beautiful. 

 The one is the display of power and opulence, meritorious and com- 

 mendable in its development, but the other gives the idea of peace 

 and seclusion, which are better. After all the Clivedens and the 

 Chatsworths, that are perhaps the glory of England's gardens, it is 

 to our parsonages, vicarages, manses, homely villas, and such places, 

 that we must look for the beautiful in gardening. I once lived with 

 a titled lady, who had woods and drives, lawns and shrubberies, of 

 almost unlimited extent, who always appeared dissatisfied with 

 everything after a visit to the rectory ; and I believe such cases are 

 general, and the reason is obvious. In the one case, the decorations 

 are spread over, perhaps, a very wide area, and in the other they are 

 more compressed, or brought together, and the whole is seen and 

 remembered ! We always feel a desire to peep over the fence into 

 the grounds of those low, old-fashioned houses that seem to be all 

 chimneys and gables, and bay windows, with projections and recesses, 

 here smothered in ivy, and there loaded with the red berries of the 

 pyracantha. There is no "balancing of colour" here — everything 

 seems dropped at random, and everything seems in the right place ; 

 and then there are so many "pretty nooks and corners," and they 

 are full of modest beauties. Of the latter I have a little to say. 



An interesting addition may be made to the gardens of the above 

 kind of residences, by what, for want of a better term, may be 

 termed a eooteey. About wheelwrights' yards (and there is a wheel- 

 wright in almost every village) a lot of useless-looking butt ends of 

 trees may be seen lying about, apparently of no earthly use, but 

 which when collected together, and disposed in a tasteful, seemingly 

 careless manner, in some of the above nooks and corners, will be 

 sure to afford pleasure at all seasons ; and while what are called 

 "rockeries" are too often contemptible abominations, these old 

 moss-grown, weather-beaten blocks are always pleasing. Do not 

 attempt to develop Gothic or Norman notions with these blocks — 

 tumble them together in a somewhat massive, careless manner, 

 according to the size of the " corner ;" and while most rockeries seem 

 to say " I would if I could," these old mossy blocks will always 

 convey the idea of taste, making the most of everything, and turning 

 everything to account. 



Miniature shrubs and all kinds of plants will luxuriate in such 



