ART.FICIAL ROCKERIES, 



natural object, are generally the least successful, and it ia indisputably true that these 

 huge attempts at artificial rock making have invariably been the least happy in producing 

 the anticipated results, and in some instances, as at Woburn Abbey, are an absolute dis- 

 figuration of the grounds. The Rocker}' at Sion House, considered in regard to the bold- 

 ness and beauty of the design, or the tastefulness of its execution, is perhaps the finest 

 piece of artificial Rockwork in Britain. It fails however in producing that effect upon the 

 mind of the beholder, as a piece of landscape scenery, which such a mass of human skill 

 and labor ia expected to produce. The peculiar object of this rockery is certainly attained 

 —if this was its only object — of forming a gradual, easy, and imperceptible boundary to 

 the flower ground, but for this purpose detached masses of shrubbery are inconceivably 

 better adapted; and could be accomplished at a trifling cost. 



The Chatsvvorth rockery is but an unsuccessful attempt to impress the mind by an 

 imitation of nature. Notwithstanding its magnitude, it is but a mimicry of some of the 

 natural rockeries that might be seen at places of less repute, as at Penryn and other places 

 in AVales, at Invermay, Dunkeld, Taymouth, and hundreds of places in the Scottish 

 Highlands, and such natural rockeries as we frequently meet with in this country, want- 

 ing only a little help from art in the shape of walks, shrubs and climbers. Such spots 

 we may see almost every where without looking for them, though in very few instances 

 have any such spots been taken advantage of for ornamental purposes. And it is not un- 

 common to see splendid country mansions built by the side of a salt marsh without a pros- 

 pect from itself, or a decent place for a pleasure garden around it — though numerous 

 picturesque and beautiful locations could be found within a mile circle of itself.* 



These rockeries already mentioned, cannot be regarded as anything else than a violent out- 

 rage uijon the principles of taste ; both are incongruous in the highest degree, and equally offen- 

 sive to a well regulated judgment. Neither is in harmony or unity with the surrounding 

 objects, and both are equally out of place, and equally void of the necessary appendages 

 to effect. In the one there is nothing but a pile of rocks in an open lawn; the other a 

 similar pile by the side of an artistical flower garden, and both exposed to view from 

 nearly every side and from a considerable distance. When covered with foliage, so as to 

 conceal the individual parts of the composition, their several beauties are lost, and the 

 whole has the appearance of a large mound of earth covered Avith different varieties of 

 plants, with here and there a rock sticking out among them. Again, if the plants be kept 

 small by constant trimming, as is necessary to show the composition of the fragments, 

 then the mind, in spite of all its enthusiasm, cannot conjure up any other idea than that 

 the thing called a rockery is but an artificial heap of stones. 



The rock garden at Chatsworth is perhaps the most extensive specimen of this kind of 

 gardening in Europe of an artificial character, although specimens of rock gardening more 

 extensive, and incomparably more interesting are to be found in many places of moderate 

 dimensions, and without dogmatising on the subject, it is yet doubtful, to sa}' the least, 

 Avhether such a piece of landscape gardening is worthy of imitation, under circumstances 

 similarly f^xvorable to its execution, and no less essentially required as a concomitant of a 

 garden landscape. The impression made upon the mind by the rock garden in question, 

 is decidedly unfavorable to it, when compared with the other parts of the garden. On 

 examining the rockery some time after its completion, with some others, we were particu- 



* A very striking illustration of what is here stated, may be seen in the vicinity of Cambridge, Mass., where a coun- 

 try mansion lately erected, that, taking it as a whole — is probably the finest of which that State can boast, ia built on a 

 narrow strip of a few acres of low marsliy land, with the said marsh on one side and the public highway a few rods 

 front, and considerably higher than its own ground level, on the othef. 



