394 LANDSCAPE GARDENING. 



ranged so as to appear like small natural caverns. Let the 

 exterior be partially planted with low shrubs and climbing 

 plants, as the wild Clematis, and the effect of such bits of 

 landscape could not but be agreeable in secluded portions of 

 the grounds. 



In many parts of the country, the secondary blue limestone 

 abounds, which, in the small masses found loose in the woods, 

 covered with mosses and ferns, affords the very finest material 

 for artificial rockwork.* 



After all, much the safest way is never to introduce rock- 

 work of any description, unless we feel certain that it will 

 have a good effect. When a place is naturally picturesque, and 

 abounds here and there with rocky banks, etc., little should 

 be done but to heighten and aid the expressions of these, if 

 they are wanting in spirit, by adding something more, or 

 softening and giving elegance to the expression, if too wild, 

 by planting the same with beautiful shrubs and climbers. 

 On a tame sandy level, where rocks of any kind are un- 

 known, their introduction in rockworks, nine times in ten, 

 is more likely to give rise to emotions of the ridiculous, than 

 those of the sublime or picturesque. 



Fountains are highly elegant garden decorations, rarely 

 seen in this country ; which is owing, not so much, we ap- 

 prehend, to any great cost incurred in putting them up, or 

 any want of appreciation of their sparkling and enlivening 



• Our readers may see an engraving and description of a superb extravaganza 

 in rockwork in a late number of Loudon's Gardener's Magazine. Lady Brough- 

 ton of Hoole House, Chester, England, has succeeded in forming round a nat- 

 ural valley an imitation of the hills, glaciers, and scenery of a passage in Switzer- 

 land. The whole is done in rockwork, the snow-covered summits being 

 represented in white spar. The appropriate plants, trees, and shrubs on a 

 small scale, are introduced, and the illusion, to a spectator standing in the valley 

 surrounded by these glaciers, is said to be wonderfully striking and complete. 



