352 



SCIENCE OF GARDENING. 



Part I J. 



is preferable. The motion of this boat is de- 

 rived from the obliquity of its sides to the 

 direction of the current, which must be kept 

 up by the use of the rudder. The boat (a) 

 must be anchored to a post (b) fixed in the 

 middle of the river ; and the longer the ca- 

 ble (c), the manoeuvre will be the more easily 

 executed, provided the movement is not* 

 made in a greater arc than 90°. The force 

 of the stream is at a maximum, when the 

 angle formed by it, and the side of the boat 

 is 54° 44'. The same purpose may be ef- 

 fected by a triangular raft without the use of 

 a rudder. (Howard on Military Bridges, 

 sect. 4. p. 97). 



1792. Sepulchral structures have been 

 adopted as parts of garden-scenery from 

 the earliest times. They are most common 

 in the Protestant countries of Europe, and 

 in England are to be found in parks and 

 pleasure-grounds in various characters and 

 styles, from the consecrated flower-plot, as 

 at Nuneham Courtenay, to the superb mau- 

 soleum of Castle Howard, or of Cobham 

 Hall. 



The most ancient form of sepulchres seems to have been tumuli, barrows, or mounds of earth ; some- 

 times planted, but generally left to acquire a clothing of turf. In cool regions, these maybe considered 

 the most durable of all tombs, because the roots and clothing of the turf prevent the earth from being 

 washed or blown away by the weather, and the material presents no temptation to the avarice of man- 

 kind. Of such tombs there are several on a small scale in Wiltshire, and on a large scale round the city 

 of Cracow ; the last considered as the sepulchres of the ancient kings of Poland. 



The cairn, or cone of rough stones, is the next form, common in some parts of Britain. To this suc- 

 ceeded the pyramid of Egypt. These are, in their nature and construction, calculated to serve as durable 

 monuments, and were very properly employed by kings and chiefs in rude ages ; for then, as now, the 

 idea of being quite forgotten was felt to be unpleasant. But in more modern times, those parts of men's 

 actions, which are worth remembering, can be recorded in books, which, when good, are the most 

 durable of all monuments. Such piles as have been mentioned are felt as too expensive, and considered 

 as too gross a display of the love of fame ; men, therefore, have recourse to what may be called emblems 

 of monuments, known under the names of mausoleums, obelisks, pillars, tombs, vaults, stone coffins, 

 sarcophagi, urns, &c. ; all of which exist from general consent, and not from the indestructive nature of 

 their materials or construction, as in the former class. The most unnatural form of sepulture, and the most 

 liable ultimately to defeat the very end in view — respect to the memory of the deceased — is that in which 

 the body is embalmed, richly clothed, and hermetically sealed up in a box or chest of durable materials, 

 such as lead, and placed in a richly ornamented building of valuable stone. Here, in times of intestine 

 war and rapine, the building will be broken into, and the lead and other valuable materials taken from 

 the bodies ; even the stuffs in which the body is wrapped may be an object, as was the case with the 

 retreating French army at Kowno and other places in 1812 ; or the architectural ornaments, and the dead 

 bodies themselves, may be objects of research, as in the case of certain Grecian marbles taken by Lord Elgin, 

 and the despoliation of numerous Egyptian tombs by Signor Belzoni and others. A very natural form of 

 sepulture for a family residing on their own estate in the country, is a consecrated grove or enclosure, 

 in which each individual is buried near a tree, inscribed with his name on the bark. All that an enemy 

 or a new purchaser can do, is to cut down the trees, and change the state of the ground from pasture 

 to arable. If any of the family have effected any great public good, it will be elsewhere permanently 

 recorded ; if they have not, it is fitting their names should, as indeed they always will, perish with their 

 bodies. The utility of epitaphs and tombs in public groves or churchyards, however, it is not meant to 

 deny ; nor to impugn the different tastes of individuals. The grand object appears to us to be the at- 

 tainment of the greatest possible quantum of enjoyment, mental and corporal, while living. 



179.J. As to monuments for the inferior animals, such as are to be found at Potsdam, Oatlands, and 

 Bramley Hall, we say, with that enviable and remarkable character the Prince de Ligne, 



" Loin ces vains monumens d'un chien ou d"un oiseau, 

 C'est profaner le deui], insulter au tombeau." 



1794. The gate is of various forms and materials, according to those of the barrier of 

 which it constitutes a part. In all gates, the essential part of the construction, or those 

 lines which maintain its strength and position, and facilitate its motion, are to be distin- 

 guished from such (a, a, Jig. 319. ; &Jig. 320.) as serve chiefly to render it a barrier, 

 or as decorations. Thus a gate with a raised top or head (Jig. 321.) is almost always 

 in bad taste, because at variance with strength ; while the contrary form (Jig. 320.) is 

 generally in good taste, for the contrary reason. In regard to strength, the nearer the 

 arrangement of rails and bars approaches in effect to one solid lamina, or plate of wood 

 or iron, of the gate's dimensions, the greater will be the force required to tear or break 

 it in pieces. But this would not be consistent with lightness and economy, and, there- 

 fore, the skeleton of a lamina is resorted to, by the employment of slips or rails joined 

 together on mechanical principles ; that is, on principles derived from a mechanical 

 analysis of strong bodies. Strength of the most perfect kind is resolvable into hard- 

 ness and tenacity ; and in artificial compositions, the latter is obtained by what in car- 

 pentry are called ties (Jigs. 319. a, & 322.) and the former by what are called struts 

 (Jig. 322. b). The art of carpentry, as far as construction is concerned, whether of gates, 



