388 Review of Loudon'' s Gardener''s Magazine. 



not be read with the less interest by every lover of public or- 

 nament, picturesque scenery, and rural improvement, in 

 this country: 



" The taste of this country is altogether disproportionate to its wealth; 

 and it is very fur inferior to the taste displayed on the Continent, among 

 nations comparatively poor. In what other city in the world but London 

 are such interminable lines of dingy, brick houses to be found, without 

 the slightest variation of feature, neither ditfering in height nor in breadth 

 of front, nor in the number, disposition, or size of the doors and win- 

 dows? Compare the long streets of first-rate houses in the west end of 

 London, with houses of the same class in Paris, Berlin, Munich, or 

 Petersburgh. By what other nation in the world would such immense 

 sums be spent in erecting public buildings which are often, soon after 

 their completion, found to be so unfit for the purposes tor which they 

 were intended as to render it necessary for them to be pulled down? hi 

 the short space of twenty years, we have seen three royal palaces razed 

 to the ground, all commenced during the lifetime of the present genera- 

 tion; and the present palace at Pimlico, we strongly suspect, will soon 

 share the same fate. Is there any other country in Europe where a 

 space situated like the Regent's Park, and of equal extent and natural 

 beauty, would have been planted with so few sorts of trees, and these 

 few so tastelessly disposed? And what shall we say to Hyde Park and 

 Kensington Gardens, which, as far as the kinds of trees and shrubs are 

 concerned, might as well be under the care of a common woodman ? Lit- 

 tle more can be advanced in favor of the shrubberies in the gardens of 

 the Pimlico Palace, which are filled, for the most part, with the common 

 stuffing of the nurseries. How is it that we can spend a million on a 

 piece of architecture that all men of taste, foreign and domestic, agree to 

 he most wretched, and which is, at the same time, placed in a damp and 

 unwholesome situation, and yet cannot spare a few thousands for plant- 

 ing in a superior manner our public parks and gardens? The answer 

 is easy. The public hitherto have not had a voice in this kind of expen- 

 diture. They have not been allowed a voice in any matter of taste, 

 because they were, in a great measure, without taste to gratify. Let 

 this taste, which at present lies dormant in the mass of society, be called 

 into existence by cultivation, and Ave shall soon see a change in all our 

 public buildings, gardens, and walks. Again, we say that the idea of 

 promoting this object by an association is a most happy one; and we 

 earnestly entreat our correspondents to lose no time in endeavoring to 

 carry it into execution. In this age of cooperation, there can be no diffi- 

 culty in establishing such a society. It w ould, in all probability, soon be 

 joined by numbers. Architects would become members of it for the sake 

 of the professional hints which they would receive from the discussions 

 carried on, as well as to keep up their taste to a par with that of the 

 society. Landscape painters and artists generally would also join it for 

 the same purpose. Builders, and all owners of property in and about 

 large towns, and especially the metropolis, would belong to such a soci- 

 ety, because what tended to ornament their property would tend also to 

 increase its value. Men of taste would join it for the sake of mental 

 gratification; and a lai'ge number from the idea of superiority which is 

 generally associated with the idea of refined taste." 



Article I, of the July number, is a continuation of "Notes 

 on Gardens and Country Seats," by the conductor. Interest- 

 ing as they always are, but we have no room to make extracts. 

 Art. II, is an account of the esculent roots and plants of Van 

 Dieman's Land. It appears that the eatable fruits " are not 



