39 



planted. Broken or rugged platforms in extensive Rockeries afford the means 

 of making an intricate pathway amongst the plants, over elevated parts, 

 amongst bushes and rocky pyramids, so blended that the amount of rock- 

 work cannot be comprehended. The extent of the Rockery must be lost by 

 planting where the rock terminates with different shrubs, such as periwinkle, 

 whins, heaths, rambling roses, hollies, blackthorns, &c, and by allowing groups 

 of stones to appear bursting, as it were, from amongst the bushes and wild 

 flowers, at different distances from the principal body of rock, so that its real 

 termination cannot be detected. 



Where Rockeries can only be conveniently placed on one side of a plot 

 of ground, the side of a steep bank affords a good site for the simulated 

 appearance of a natural rock, on which groups of different sized stones, in 

 addition to the principal rock, might be so disposed as to give the appearance 

 of a natural rocky bed, breaking through the precipice at different distances 

 and of various magnitudes. Large stones should be placed in advance in 

 some parts of the flat below, and here and there, as near as a few inches to 

 the principal rock, so as to seem to have split off from the principal mass. 

 Some of these principal stones should be furnished with low growing shrubs, 

 as the spreading broom, heath, savin, cotoneaster microphilla, berberis, 

 impetrifolia, whin, crowberry, bilberry, &c. These arrangements, judiciously 

 managed, will, in two or three years, render it a difficult task for the visiter, 

 especially if a stranger, to detect any art in the composition. 



In situations where there is plenty of extent, a greater interest may be 

 produced by forming caverns and subterranean passages (figure 14), pre- 

 senting a rude, broken, rocky character inside. The passages should be large, 

 and go through the bottom of the largest and deepest part of the Rockery, 

 being so contrived by curves or angles, that, when entering at one end, there 

 should be no light perceptible at the other, and they should lead to some 

 other part of the grounds. These passages should be roofed by allowing 

 broad fiat stones to project by degrees until the whole is naturally covered in ; 

 and at the outside, at each end of the passage, there should be at least 

 several yards of rock appearing on both sides, in order to destroy the idea of 

 art as much as possible. 



Conical Rockeries have a good effect when rising out of a mound, or 

 conical hill, in rugged scenery. These, either naturally or artificially asso- 



