64 THE FLOWER GARDEN. 



altogether. In conjunction with these, what can be 

 handsomer than the iron tracery-work which came 

 into fashion with the Dutch style, and of which 

 Hampton Court affords so splendid an example? 

 Good screens of this work, which on their first intro- 

 duction were called clair-voyees, may be seen at 

 Oxford in Trinity and New College Gardens. Some 

 years ago we heard of a proposition to remove the 

 latter : the better taste of the present day will not, 

 we think, renew the scheme. Though neither of 

 these are in the rich flamboyant style which is some- 

 times seen, there is still character enough about 

 them to assure us that, were they destroyed, nothing 

 so good would be put up in their place. Oxford has 

 already lost too many of its characteristic alleys and 

 parterres. The last sweep was at the Botanic Gar- 

 den, where, however, the improvements recently 

 introduced by the zeal and liberality of the present 

 Professor must excuse it. If any college-garden is 

 again to be reformed, we hope that the fellows will 

 have courage enough to lay it out in a style which 

 is at once classical and monastic ; and set Pliny's 

 example against Walpole's sneer, that "in an age 

 when architecture displayed all its grandeur, all its 

 purity, and all its taste ; when arose Vespasian's 

 amphitheatre, the temple of Peace, Trajan's forum, 

 Domitian's baths, and Adrian's villa, the ruins and 

 vestiges of which still excite our astonishment and 

 curiosity a Roman consul, a polished emperor's 

 friend, and a man of elegant literature and taste, 

 delighted in what the mob now scarce admire in a 



