AKTISTICAL DECORATIONS. 95 



of statuary in flower-gardens and dressed grounds is 

 a much more difficult subject. It must be owned that, 

 iu this country, it has seldom a very satisfactory effect, 

 partly from the severity of our climate, and partly 

 from the want of those associations with antiquities 

 and architecture which make Italy, as it were, the 

 native home of statues. To our taste, scarcely any 

 thing seems more uncomfortably out of place than 

 black or white painted figures peeping forth from a 

 group or mass of shrubs. Indeed, the less that is seen 

 of them in such circumstances, the better ; and they 

 would be often well away altogether. Statues should 

 always be in connection with architecture ; on ter- 

 races they may be appropriately introduced, along 

 with fountains, as the centers of primary or secondary 

 groups of flower-beds. We should hesitate to distrib- 

 ute them singly throughout the grounds, unless the 

 whole place has a more architectural complexion than 

 is common in this country. 



Note. — The good sense of our author, in excluding 

 ordinary statuary from ornamental grounds, is to be 

 commended. It certainly has little fitness to an Amer- 

 ican climate. Vases are appropriate when properly 

 disposed. Earthen vases should be taken under shel- 

 ter in winter, as the frosts will spoil them ; and iron 

 ones, in imitation, protected against filling with water. 

 All vases, indeed, should have a hole in the bottom, 

 to pass oft' the water that may fall into them. They 

 may be corked, when required to hold water or earth 

 for the preservation or growth of flowers or plants. 

 Yases are both classic and picturesque ornaments to 

 buildings and grounds, when in keeping with the 

 architectui-e of the place ; but they are chiefly suited 



