KURAL ARCIilTECTUUE. 407 



bounding away to the covert, or the pheasant bursting 

 suddenly upon the wing. The brook, taught to wind in 

 natural meanderings, or to expand into a glassy lake, — the 

 sequestered pool reflecting the quivering trees, with the 

 yellow leaf sleeping upon its bosom, and the trout roaming 

 fearlessly about its limpid waters ; wh>le some rustic 

 temple or sylvan statue, grown green and dark with age, 

 gives an air of classic sanctity to the seclusion." 



" These are but a few of the features of park scenery ; 

 but what most delights me, is the creative talent with 

 which the English decorate the unostentatious abodes of 

 middle life. The rudest habitation, the most unpromising 

 and scanty portion of land, in the hands of an Englishman 

 of taste, becomes a little paradise. With a nicely 

 discriminating eye he seizes at once upon its capabilities, 

 and pictures in his mind the future landscape. The sterile 

 spot grows into loveliness under his hand ; and yet the 

 operations of art which produce the effect are scarcely to 

 be perceived ; the cherishing and training of some trees : 

 the cautious pruning of others ; the nice distribution of 

 flowers and plants of tender and graceful foliage ; the 

 introduction of a green slope of velvet turf; the partial 

 opening to a peep of blue distance, or silver gleam of 

 water, — all these are managed with a delicate tact, a per 

 vading, yet quiet assiduity, like the magic touchings with 

 which a painter finishes up a favorite picture." 



" The residence of people of fortune and refinement in 

 the country, has diffused a degree of taste and elegance 

 that descends to the lowest class. The very laborer, with 

 his thatched cottage and narrow slip of gi'ound, attends to 

 their embellishment. The trim hedge, the grass-plot before 

 the door, the little flower bed bordered with snug box, the 



