14S GARDEN MA^'AGEME^T. 



expensive to the proprietor. Perhaps there is no better mode of preventing 

 such evils than by the formation of a model of the centre garden, on a small 

 scale, in a box of sand, or on a large scale on a piece of ground. Not only 

 the outlines of walks, forms of beds, positions of vases, fountains, kc, but 

 every irregularity of surface, depth and inclination of terraces, and even the 

 effects of planting, can be thus vividly illustrated. Having discovered by this, 

 or any other method, what your garden is to be, the next point demanding 

 attention will be the form of the surface and character of the soil. It is 

 seldom that either will be found exactly adapted to our tastes or necessities ; 

 the former will generally require improving in form, and the latter in quality. 

 Smoothness or evenness of surface is not only one of the elements of beauty, 

 but constitutes the chief charm of every garden ; not that the surface need 

 be level ; but the fall should be regular, the elevations nicely rounded off, and 

 all small irregularities removed. The best form is to have the ground level 

 for twenty or fifty yards round the house, and then a gentle incline beyond 

 it. Occasionally, however, grounds will look very charming if they have a 

 gradual rise at a distance of TOO to 200 yards from a dwelling-house. One of 

 the most beautiful gardens I have ever seen was shaped thus, a being the house, 



a 6 c -H S, a gi'avel walk, with 



"^^^M^^^z^TT ^ J- ^ » /lfJ0^ grass-plot, c ; beyond, 



W^m^^i>^^^lll ^ sloping bank, d, ter- 



' ' minating in a sloping 



lawn, e ; at the base is the flower-garden,/, and a sloping bank, g, down to the 

 water, which may either be an artificial canal or a natural river, the opposite 

 bank, h, being a wood or copse of shrubs. If the opposite bank had been 

 nicely sloped down to the water, and planted with rhododendrons, these 

 grounds would have been still more perfect. When I saw them, the wood- 

 side was exceedingly rough, and an ii-regular run of agged edges of earth 

 exhibited along the water's edge throughout its entire ength. The banks of 

 all ornamental water in dressed pleasure-grounds, whether composed of turf 

 or stone, should descend several inches below the water-line. 



353. At one of the finest places in the county of Norfolk, if not in the 

 kingdom, the house stands on the side of a hill, sloping down to a most 

 extensive, rich, agricultural, wooded valley beyond. It is surrounded with 

 wide terraces, supported with massive walls finished with rich balustrades, the 

 different levels being reached by magnificent flights of steps. -The following 

 exhibits a rough section of the shape of the ground about the centre : — 1 is 

 ' X the position of the 



terrace, of different 

 widths and levels, 

 edged with scroll-work of box and white s£.nd, filled up with deep bedding- 

 plants ; 3 is the massive stone wall ; 4, a border for geraniums, with patches 

 of hollyhocks, &c. ; 5, sloping lawn, furnished in some parts with fine large 

 trees, in others with regular- shaped beds for bedding-out plants. The dotted 



