286 PRACTICAL GARDENING. 



sufficient extent affords, generally, a fine view of the domain 

 all round, and of the adjoining property sometimes. In 

 planting such a mound, care should be taken, as the path 

 winds round, to stop out from, the view any object that is 

 conimon-j)lace or disagreeable, so that the best, and only the 

 best, can be seen. On such an eminence is the place for 

 some building, which should be a resting-place at all times, 

 and an agreeable apartment to spend a few hours in at any 

 time. A temple of some kind is the most appropriate. It 

 maybe an imitation of a ruined building; but there is nothing 

 looks more beautiful, when half concealed by trees, than 

 pillars supporting a classic fagade, or dome, or some well- 

 executed imitation of ruins, but not upon a small scale. K 

 the walls are not three feet or more thick, and all things in 

 proportion, better leave it for trees alone ; for there is nothing 

 more contemptible than the ruins of nine-inch brick wall ; 

 and yet it is by no means uncommon. The least appearance 

 of diminutiveness is intolerable : better have a square lump of 

 sohd ruin, Avithout any attempt at elevation, than lath and 

 plaster castles that will hardly stand a puff of air. Let 

 everything that is not modern be on a gigantic scale, if there 

 be but little of it. A temple, if the fi-ont only were standing, 

 composed of four pillars and a fascia ; and supposing it to be 

 a ruin, the remainder only represented by corresponding brick 

 columns and stones, would be effective, if partly concealed by 

 thick trees. 



The planting of a mound requires some taste and judgment. 

 We must treat the whole as an antique. It must be supposed 

 to have been on the ground, and to have been preserved. 

 Modern planting of rich beauties would not do for such a 

 scene. Oak would be an appropriate subject for a Druid's 

 temple ; but it is scarcely inappropriate for anything supposed 

 to originate in a country where it is indigenous. Still, there 

 ^re many trees that would be more in keeping with many 

 others. All this has to be kept in mind when we are making 

 an object from other models. It would seem greatly out of 

 keeping to plant modern slirubs as the adjuncts to an antique 

 building ; and it should be recollected, that if we could make 

 a feature like this in all respects consistent, a great point 

 would be gained ; and in the absence of this, in attemptmg 

 anything great, we had better adopt at once the model of a 

 rustic cottage, the real or supposed residence of a ranger, or 



