462 THE VILLA GARDENER. 



the finest pictures, and whose eyes must consequently be familiar with all 

 that is noble and beautiful in landscape, should yet commit the laying out of 

 their grounds to their gardeners ; or, at all events, permit them to make altera- 

 tions and additions in whatever relates to flower-beds, flowering shrubs, and 

 rockwork ; forgetting that the life of the gardener has been devoted to the 

 study of the culture of plants, and not to that of the composition of forms, 

 and their effect in landscape scenery. Hence it is that many of the most 

 beautiful places in England are at this moment disfigured by flower-beds, 

 either placed where there ought to be none, or put down of such shapes, and 

 in such a manner, as neither to form a whole among themselves, nor with the 

 other objects near them. How rarely do we find pieces of rockwork, or rocky 

 cascades, in England, which a man who had profited by the study of pictures 

 could take pleasure in looking at? It is clear to us, that the possessors of 

 pictures in general derive very little benefit from them, as regards the improve- 

 ment of their taste in landscape. How few landed proprietors can, like the 

 late Sir Uvedale Price, and the late William Wells, Esq., of Redleaf, trans- 

 fuse the spirit of the finest landscape into the artificial scenery which they 

 create in their grounds? Many country gentlemen are in the habit of having 

 artists at their houses, to take portraits, views, &c. ; and these behig, in many 

 instances, the guests of the family for weeks together, we often wonder how 

 it happens that they do not point out the grosser errors of want of connection 

 and unity of expression, with which they must so frequently be shocked in 

 passing through flowerbeds and pleasure-grounds; but we suppose that 

 gentlemen do not think of asking the opinion of a landscape-painter on any 

 point connected with gardening; forgetting that the composition of forms is 

 the business of the landscape-painter, and that his eye has been educated by 

 a long course of study and observation, so that he can detect what is right or 

 wrong at a single glance. There are some proprietors who have studied the 

 subject themselves, or who, fortunately knowing their own ignorance of it, 

 have had the wisdom to consult such artists as Gilpin, Nesfield, &c. ; and we 

 only wish that those who do without such aid could see their places as they 

 are seen by men of real taste. To return to the subject of flowers and flower- 

 beds, we may remark that the flower-garden at Kenwood is the only defective 

 part of the place. It is naturally shaded and confined by a lofty lime-tree 

 avenue on the one hand, and by a rising hill of oak wood on the other ; and 

 the area of the garden contains by far too many small trees and shrubs among 

 the flowers : in consequence of this, the turf is almost always damp on the 

 surface ; and the flowers come up with slender and etiolated stems, and pale 

 colours. Most of the flower-beds, also, are too large ; and they do not com- 

 bine so as to form a whole. Were it ours, we should clear the whole area, 

 and lay out a new combination of figures, chiefly along the centre, planting 

 them solely with flowers, and keeping between them and the boimdary a broad 

 margin of turf, so as to insure that airiness, dryness, and sunshine, which are 

 at present so much wanted. 



503. The variety of trees and shrubs in the grounds at Kenwood is not very 

 great ; nor is it desirable that it should be so, except in the more secluded 

 parts of the place, where they would not interfere with the general eflfect. 

 Adjoining the flower-garden, and bordering a walk which leads from it to the 

 dairy and farm, a number of new species of ligneous plants have recently 

 been introduced, and a small pinetum planted. This walk, from the botanical 



