180 



THK TILLA GARDENEK. 



90 



beds of flowers cased with fantastic roots, hollow stumps 

 of trees, rustic arcades, dead trees, and other places for 

 forming receptacles for low plants, or supports for climb- 

 ing ones, may all be introduced occasionally ; care being 

 taken that they are never displayed in such numbers, or 

 of such magnitude, as to attract more attention than the 

 flowers to which they are meant to be subservient. To 

 keep within the happy medium, however, in this kind 

 of garden ornament, is extremely difficult ; since the 

 proprietor, who has had them constructed under his direc- 

 tion one after another, is apt to lose sight of the general 

 effect, in the interest which each separate object has 

 created in his mind, and which he looks upon with the 

 fond indulgence of a parent ; forgetting that a stranger 

 judges of them solely by their effects as connected with 

 the scenery around them. 



276. Wirework, in the form of the rims and handles of 

 baskets, edgings, and various kinds of props for climbers, 

 may also be occasionally introduced; always, however, 



remembering that they are to be subordinate objects to the plants which 



they enclose, protect, or sustain. It is customary to paint wirework of this 



description green ; but, in our opinion, this colour is the very worst that 



can be adopted for any kind of 



structure or utensil to be placed 



among the green of nature. A 



stone-colour, or dull white, or 



greyish black, we think greatly 



preferable. Fie/. 90. shows a 



mode of forming edgings to 



beds in gardens. Fiff. 91. shows a wirework edging of a handsome kind, and 



on a larger scale. 



277. T/ie use of vases, mid other garden ornaments of artificial stone, or of 

 earthenware, is now very fashionable in pleasure-grounds, and more especially 

 in flower-gardens ; but this kind of ornament is very frequently overdone or 

 misplaced. When ihey are used, they should, if possible, be placed on a 

 pedestal corresponding to the vase, as shown in fig. 92. 



278. Sculpture in gardens. — Whoever understands the phrase "unity of 

 expression," and can examine any scene presented to him by the test of its 

 being 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 gar- 

 dens. 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 founda- 

 tion ; and it should never be set on anything 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 para- 

 pet or terrace-wall, or even a stone border to a walk, a bed, or a pond ; and, 

 m default of these, even a paved walk between a row of statues, the pedes- 

 tals standing on a flagstone, projected from the pavement into the adjoining 



