and of Rural Improvement generally, during 1837. 535 



out the country. Among the garden buildings newly completed, 

 or in progress, may be mentioned the range of hot-houses in the 

 Manchester Botanical and Horticultural Garden, those in the 

 Edinburgh Botanic Garden, a splendid conservatory preparing 

 for Tientham Flail by Clark of Birmingham, a range for the Duke 

 of Bedford, and a gigantic house at Chatsworth. Among the 

 minor structures figured and described in the present Volume, is 

 a span-roofed pit for green-house plants, by Mr. John Bevis (see 

 p. 247.), in which ventilation is effected in a manner which pre- 

 vents the plants from, damping off during winter. The use of 

 garden ornaments of artificial stone, or of earthenware, is in- 

 creasing rapidly throughout the country. \k\ many places, they 

 are not introduced with propriety, and in others they are far too 

 numerous ; but their frequency will lead reflecting persons 

 to enquire why they please in some instances, and displease 

 in others ; and, in the end, a better taste will prevail. Who- 

 ever understands the meaning of the phrase " unity of ex- 

 pression," and can examine any scene presented to him by the 

 test of its beinir or not being "a harmonious whole," will be able 

 to determine what is right and what is wrong in the disposition 

 of sculptural ornaments in gardens. All architectural objects 

 and statuary, being ponderous and intended for great duration, 

 should be placed on bases obviously secure and durable. A 

 vase or a statue should never be set down on grass or on dug 

 ground, without a decided pedestal, resting, or appearing to rest, 

 on a secure foundation ; and it should never be set on any- 

 thing less obviously durable than masonry. Where such objects 

 form the predominating features in a scene, they should always 

 be connected with some kind of building, such as a parapet 

 or terrace wall, or even a stone border to a walk, a bed, or a 

 pond ; and, in default of these, even a paved walk between a row 

 of statues, the pedestals standing on a flag-stone, projected from 

 the pavement into the adjoining turf or dug ground, will tend 

 to preserve unity of expi'ession. Even an area of gravel projected 

 from a gravel walk, and extending an inch or two all round the 

 pedestal, will have a tendency to maintain the secure architectural 

 character which ought always to accompany architectural and 

 sculptural objects. Root-works, rustic baskets, and other tem- 

 porary objects or structures of this kind, should seldom or never 

 be introduced in the same scene with vases, statues, or other 

 articles of stone. A very common error in composing what is 

 called rockwork is, to intermix temporary materials, such as old 

 roots, stumps of trees, &c., with durable and permanent ones, 

 such as fragments of rock, pieces of scoriae, vitrified bricks, &c. ; 

 with artistical fragments, such as pieces of hewn stone, sculp- 

 ture, vases, &c.; or with natural objects, such as shells, corals, 

 ^c; than which nothing can be more heterogeneous, or atvariance 



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