184 THE VILLA GAEDENF.E. 



the idea that they form a part of, or protrude from below, the foundation of a 

 building, produce the expression of stability and propriety ; but, when they 

 are heaped up on the surface of the ground against the walls, the idea of 

 incongruity is excited, by seeing that which ought to be the foundation, and 

 consequently under the building, piled up against it, and above the surface of 

 the ground. Not only are the ideas of propriety and stability thus totally 

 destroyed, but those of disorder and insecurity are produced. Neither, as we 

 have observed in a preceding page, should roots, decayed trunks, stumps, or 

 branches of trees, ever be mixed up with stones, on account of their obvious 

 incongruity in point of durability. Each of these kinds of materials ought to 

 be kept by itself; and thus we might have receptacles for plants formed 

 entirely of decayed wood in one place ; in another, of fragments of rock ; in 

 a third, of land-stones or of flints ; and, in others, of vitrified bricks, of scoriae, 

 of pieces of hewn stone, of fragments of sculpture, of shells, of corals, of spars, 

 of petrifactions, &c. When there is nothing in the nature of the surface that 

 indicates the presence of rock or stone in the soil, and when it is determined, 

 at all events, to have some rockwork, one of the three following modes may 

 be adopted to render it natural : viz., the rockwork may be built on a level 

 surface ; an excavation may be made to imitate an old stone quarry ; or a 

 walk may be carried through rocks. 



281. On a level surface, a preparation may be made, beginning at a short 

 distance from where the main body of rockwork is to be placed, by sinking 

 some fragments of stone into the earth, so deep as to show only their edges, 

 or angles, rising above the turf. As the main body is approached, these 

 stones may become more numerous ; larger portions of them may be shown ; 

 and they may be connected in lines, or ridges, in such a manner as to indicate, 

 partly by protruding stones, and partly by raised places in the turf, something 

 lii<e the "cropping out," or rising to the surface of natural strata. A few 

 half-sunk stones, of different sizes, may then appear in groups, as if they had 

 been accidentally separated from these strata ; and immediately before the 

 mass of rockwork, there may be some loose stones, with flat sides, piled irre- 

 gularly on one another, so as to form subordinate masses to the large mass. 

 This large or principal mass must be in imitation of some natural character 

 of rock; and, whatever that character may be, the manner of the preparation 

 for it which we have been just describing must be of the same kind. The 

 rock to be imitated may be stratified in various ways, as we see sandstone, 

 limestone, slatestone, &c., in nature ; or it may be in masses, with no appear- 

 ance of regular strata, but with cracks and fissures, sometimes horizontal or 

 oblique, and at other times perpendicular; and diflfering both in the magni- 

 tude of the clefts or fissures, and also in their numbers, as we often see in 

 masses of granite, trapstone, &c. In short, having thrown out the idea of 

 imitating nature, both in the main mass of rockwork, and in the preparations 

 for it, that alone will be sufficient to guide the artistical gardener, who has 

 lived in a hilly or rocky country. It will be seen, from these remarks, that 

 the kind of rockwork which displays a heap or heaps of stones, however large 

 some of these may be, all showing themselves above the surface, and to the 

 same extent over the whole heap, as if it had been merely a mound of earth 

 dotted over with stones, has no claim whatever to be considered as rockwork 

 in our sense of the word. It may represent a commonplace or a curious heap 

 of stones, which may be more or less convenient for the culture of plants ; 



