188 THE VILLA GARDENER. 



stratified rockwork may be carried up to the surface, and considerably above 

 it, so as to give some distant resemblance to an old stone quarry, which may 

 be supposed to have existed there before the spot was turned into pleasure- 

 grounds. An example of rockwork of this kind is given m fig. 97., and it is 

 an idea which every gardener of taste will know how to improve and carry 

 into execution. 



28;i. A tvalk, or a glade of turf, may be sunk in a level surface, or carried 

 through a knoll or raised surface ; and the sides of the glade or walk may 

 display scars or precipices of rockwork, more or less stratified, according to 

 circumstances. On the surface above such rockwork trees may be planted, 

 which would give the whole an air of truth, stability, and durability ; the very 

 reverse of the effect produced by heaping up fragments of stone about the 

 roots of trees. An example of this is shown in fig. 98. In general no rock- 

 work of any kind whatever can be put together in a manner satisfactory to 

 the man of taste, except by a workman who has the eye of an artist, who can 

 conceive beforehand the effect which he wishes to produce, who has some idea 

 of connexion and grouping, and who knows the difference between peculiar 

 and general nature. Those who attempt rockwork, without possessing one or 

 more of these qualities of mind, can hardly fail to be unsuccessful ; or, if 

 they produce anything good, it must be by mere accident. They may put 

 together heaps of stones, larger or smaller, according to the abundance of the 

 material; or the sum expended ; the heaps may be curious, from the variety 

 of stones, spars, &c., brought together ; or ludicrous, from the fantastic shapes 

 of some of them; or childish, from the position of others; but nothing to 

 affect the imagination can ever be the result of such accumulations. After 

 all that has been done, they will still be only heaps of stones. Hence it is, 

 that all the rockworks in Britain, worth looking at, have been constructed by 

 workmen who have had a natural genius for this kind of work ; or under the 

 immediate direction of artists. For example, those at Pain's Hill, Wimble- 

 don House, and Oatlands, were put up by a stonemason, who devoted himself 

 entirely to this kind of production, and who was eagerly sought for in every 

 part of the country; that at Hoole, as we have seen, was designed and 

 executed under the eye of the proprietor, Lady Broughton ; that at Redleaf 

 was also executed under the direction of the late Mr. Wells himself; and the 

 interesting grottoes and cascades at Wardour Castle, by a mason who was 

 much employed in that way throughout the country, and who, though he 

 received nearly a pound a day, when employed, died some years ago, as we 

 were informed in 1833, in the parish workhouse. 



284. Water. — To determine the extent to which water should be intro- 

 duced, and the character which it ought to assume in small places, is a point 

 requiring some consideration. In the case of a spring or a running stream 

 the difficulty is not great ; but, where there is only just a sufficient supply of 

 water to maintain a pond or small lake during the summer season, the skill 

 required is greater. The difficulty arises, not from any doubt of the eflTect of 

 the water, in a picturesque point of view, for that is easily determined ; but 

 with regard to its influence on the salubrity of the atmosphere of the place. 

 The exhalations, even from pure water, when they are taken up by the atmo- 

 sphere of any given space to such an extent as to render it moister than that 

 of the surrounding country, must be considered injurious; and much more 

 so are exhalations from water rendered impure by the decay of vegetables 



