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CHAPTER IX. 



MANAGEMENT OF THE LAWN, PLEASURE- 

 GROUNDS, AND SHRUBBERY OF A SMALL 

 VILLA. 



The word lawn may probably conjure up ideas 

 of too lar^e an extent of ground to be managed 

 by a lady; but, when I use the term, I do not 

 mean an extensive park-like surface of level 

 turf, but one of those beautiful verdant glades 

 that produce so delightful an effect even in the 

 smallest gardens. In places where the whole 

 extent of garden ground does not, perhaps, 

 exceed an acre, every one must have felt the 

 relief afforded to the eye by a broad strip of 

 lawn, bordered by trees and shrubs, not in a 

 formal line on each side, but running into 

 numerous projections and recesses, and resting 

 their lower branches, frequently covered with 

 flowers, on a rich, smooth, and velvet-like car- 

 pet of grass. 



Every one possessing a lawn of this descrip- 

 tion must be aware that its chief beauty con- 

 sists in its smoothness, and in the fineness and 

 closeness of its grasses. I say grasses, because, 

 strange as it may sound to unbotanical ears, 

 from twenty to thirty different kinds of grasses 

 sometimes enter into the composition of a 



