176 Landscape Gardening 



ings to walks; the arrangement of plants in rows in irregular 

 gardening, or the occurrence of three conspicuous specimens 

 nearly in a row upon a lawn, where a decided line is not 

 sought; plants that should be in a row, at all out of the Une; 

 specimens not placed exactly in the middle of a circle, or 

 planted with an inclination to one side where they ought to 

 be upright; wavy Hnes in near and parallel association with 

 such as are straight; unmeaning and sudden inequalities of 

 surface in a lawn; — these are things which are of very slight 

 moment, regarded individually, but of great and weighty 

 influence upon the general character of a garden. 



Where a pleasing and refined expression is aimed at, then, 

 there must be no fancied superiority to Httle things, no neglect 

 of the elegancies of finish, no inattention to the most delicate 

 propriety. And the less perfect and effective a garden is, the 

 more will it be necessary to consider and polish the most 

 minute of its parts; for, while striking and extraordinary 

 things may pass off a few deficiencies without exciting" obser- 

 vation, such as are of an inferior and more commonplace 

 stamp will need all the aid they can derive from minor details 

 to preserve them from the lowest mediocrity. 



2. Mounds and banks are features with which a great deal 

 may be accomplished in a garden, if they be properly treated. 

 As frequently met with, they are the greatest possible eye- 

 sores, altogether destitute of beauty and having no visible 

 relation to the general surface. They are commonly either 

 long straight ridges or banks, such as a hedger would throw 

 up, only with the sides softened away; or are mere lumps of 

 earth, pretty nearly resembHng compost or manure heaps. 



The commonest use of mounds to-day in America, and 

 doubtless the best use — if indeed not the only legitimate 

 employment — is to form a closed boundary about a garden 

 or park. Such a raised border mound will nearly always be 



