ARTISTICAL DECORATIONS. DO 



or with groups of flower-beds, in the more ii'regiilar 

 styles of designing. The emplojTnent of statuary in 

 flower-gardens and di'essed groimds is a much more diffi- 

 cult subject. It must be owned that, in this countiy, 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 anything seems more uncomfortably 

 out of place than black or white painted figiu'es peeping 

 forth from a group or mass of shrubs. Indeed, the 

 less that is seen of them in such cii'cumstances the 

 better ; and they would be often vrell away altogether. 

 Statues should always be in connection with architecture : 

 on terraces they may be appropriately introduced, along 

 with foimtains, as the centres of primary or secondary 

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

 bute them singly throughout the grounds, imless the 

 whole place has a more architectm^al complexion than is 

 common in this country. 



Rockivorks are pleasing objects when well executed, 

 but they should hardly be introduced except in places 

 where their position indicates that something of the kind 

 is not unnatural, that the rock projects inartificially 

 through the ground, or that it may have been laid bare 

 by some needful excavation. The materials of rock- 

 works should not be altogether foreign to the geology of 

 the district ; or if they are so, thefr natm-al stratification 

 should be imitated as well as possible, as, indeed, it ought 

 to be in all cases^ for this, if skilfrdly done, wiU take off 

 much fr'om thefr artificial appearance. It is a common, 

 but a very great, error to constiiict them of all the 

 curious, rugged, weather-eaten or water- worn stones that 



