14 



LONDON HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY'S GARDEN. 



works with his hands, living hy God's dis- 

 pensation to Adam, whilst others engage 

 in the lottery of commercial life, or in the 

 more lucrative professions. 



Our farm-house should be large and 

 roomy. It should have a certain grandeur 

 and simplicity of form, and an absence of 

 conscious ornament. When the clouds 

 overshadow it, it may look stern or even 

 gloomy, but shall smile when the sun 

 shines out, like the mountain tops, or the 

 sunlit trees. If not pretty, it shall be pic- 

 turesque ; it shall sympathise with, and not 

 break into the landscape. 



We have seen farm-houses in the old 

 country that answered to this description, 

 but they were not such as we can safely 

 copy. Happy accidents ; half castellated 

 buildings, — the relics of past time, upon 

 which age had cast a softening tinge, and 

 pruned off excrescences ; but surely, an 

 artist of genius might lay down the rules 

 within which such buildings could exist. 



The farmer loves to live in the sunlight. 

 He cannot see the beauty of overshadowing 

 his house with trees. Therefore, the farm- 

 house, above all others, requires a form 

 that need not shrink from exposure. 



Our fences mar our landscapes, and espe- 

 cially our farm-houses. All lovers of land- 

 scape will congratulate themselves, should 

 the wire fences come generally into use. 



A smart house suggests smart grounds. 

 Such, if your land is small, your grounds 

 may be. But woe to the owner of broad 

 lands, in this country, if he try to keep up 

 smart and extensive grounds. He had 

 need of a brother from California every 

 year. The suggestive demands of his smart 

 house may ruin him. To a man of taste, 

 to whom it is a necessity of life to have 

 things in keeping, to have nothing sug- 

 gested that is not fulfilled, a shade or 

 two difference in the colour of his house, 

 may make a serious difference in his ex- 

 penditure. " It's not the carriage that costs, 

 my dear, but what the carriage suggests," 

 viz., champagne for cider, and a dinner 

 party once a week. 



All taste, as well as all tact, consists in 

 following the suggestion of circumstances 

 and character ; and the fine eye, to detect 

 the essential, among the indifferent circum- 

 stances, is the one advantage of a culti- 

 vated taste. W. 



Lenox, Mass., June, 1849. 



[The foregoing contains the pith of a 

 whole volume ; and the writer will see, in 

 our forthcoming work on " Country Hou- 

 ses," how entirely we have arrived at the 

 same point ; a point which, rightly under- 

 stood, gives a new meaning to all rural ar- 

 chitecture. Ed.] 



A VISIT TO THE LONDON HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY'S GARDEN. 



BY H. W. SARGENT. 



[The following extract from a letter, lately 

 received from a friend, travelling in Eng- 

 land, will interest a great mary of our 

 readers, though not written for publica- 

 tion. Ed.] 



yesterday to the gardens of the Horticultu" 

 ral Society at Chiswick. I spent there 

 three hours, full of interest. Mr. Thomp- 

 son (thanks to your kind introduction, J 

 taking the greatest pains to gratify my 



I must not forget to tell you of my visit curiosity in every respect, and affording 



