ROCK, WALL AND BOG GARDENS. 



The artificial rockwork seen in this illustration must not be confounded with the Artificial 

 ordinary rockery made by setting all sorts of stones unrestfully on end on a mound of rockwork. 

 earth. The latter is one of the least to be commended of the mid- Victorian garden 

 adjuncts, which, when made of white spar or some equally exotic-looking stone or even 

 broken crockery, cannot but have a most unsatisfactory and unaesthetic effect. The 

 only form of artificial rockwork which is to be commended or which can be permanently 

 satisfactory is that made by skilled workmen who have had a special training for the 

 work, and which is an exact reproduction of the indigenous virgin rock with all its strata 

 and lamime faithfully copied, and even this should be used with restraint and great 

 caution, for the tendency is almost always to over-do it and make it very obtrusive. The 

 same or an even better effect can often be obtained with one or two strata jutting 

 out of the soil which suggest hidden masses below than when great barriers of rock are 



FIG. 265. -ALPINE GARDEN ON THE SLATE ROCK OF THE LAKE DISTRICT. 



constructed. Where too much is attempted, too, with the idea of getting the most for 

 the money expended, mere size is sometimes obtained at the expense of attention to 

 detail and balanced proportion. In such cases, it would have been far better to have 

 been content with less than to have built so much in a manner which cannot fail to look 

 artificial. Care should of course be taken that the material used does not clash with 

 the local geological character. Thus freestone rocks should not be built up in a chalk 

 district and vice-versa. In those few cases where there is any choice, it may be said 

 that ferns prefer limestone, while American woody shrubs will die on it, though they 

 will flourish on sandstone, which is the rock-builder's favourite material. 



It may be objected that, after all, the rockwork is artificial, and therefore a sham, 

 and so cannot be pleasing to the truly artistically trained mind and eye. This is not 

 so, however, for, if a thing may be described as a sham, it must be an inferior substitute 



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