310 PRACTICAL GARDENING. 



everything should be rustic. How many splendid examples 

 of landscape are defaced by this palpable error ! JN'ever- 

 theless, we are not to condemn handsome bridges in their 

 proper places, where the bridge can be seen from the man- 

 sion, and the mansion from the bridge, and more especially 

 when both can be seen from one spot ; the bridge may be, 

 without inconsistency, a noble architectural pile, but the 

 order should match. It does not seem well to have an 

 Italian bridge to an Elizabethan mansion, but we have seen 

 such things, and to us they appear a palpable absurdity. But 

 it should be borne in mind that a rustic bridge, however 

 roughly designed, is never out of place ; a man may stick up 

 Ms English mansion in the midst of rural scenery, but his 

 garden ornaments should be in keeping. If his house be 

 Itahan, his bridges must be Itahan, or rustic ; so, also, if his 

 mansion be Swiss, or ISTorman, or Grecian, or anything else 

 European, the rustic, whether rough hewn timber or slabs, 

 with limbs of trees for a hand-rail, or more elaborate, cannot 

 be wrong ; but what can be worse than a mixture of styles 

 in sight at the same time ; a chain bridge, for instance, a 

 Swiss cottage, a thatched hut for a lodge ; and yet such things 

 are done ; when a bridge is in an isolated situation away 

 from the house, on a little world of its own, make it what 

 you please, but have everything in sight to match, even to 

 the trees and shrubs that you plant. "We are partial to rustic 

 bridges, except where all the garden erections match the 

 mansion, and the plantations are made in accordance. 



Entrances. — Few features about a gentleman's domain are 

 less attended to than the entrance ; we could mention a great 

 many very princely estates, the entrances to which are by no 

 means worthy of the place ; all the drive that is in sight is 

 bad — neglected plantations, bad road, the outhne of the car- 

 riage-way lost or worn out, every yard of the drive bounded 

 by worn-out trees or none, neither rule nor order observed 

 inside the gate, and weeds and waste ground outside. As we 

 approach the mansion things look a little more humanized, 

 but nothing in good keeping tiU we get to the ground in the 

 immediate vicinity of the house. This is not a very flattering 

 picture of a nobleman's place, but it is quite true of some, and 

 very nearly true of a good many. Whose fault is it 1 gene- 

 rally the owner's, sometimes the bailiff's, but oftener the 

 gardener's. People roll in and out of their gates in carriages, 



