special Features 197 



It is principally of consequence to regard a park as a link 

 between the dressed parts of a garden and the wilder and 

 freer characteristics of nature. In its furniture, therefore, it 

 should resemble the garden about the parts where they unite, 

 and the more general features of the country towards its 

 outer edges. It must by no means be a detached and iso- 

 lated thing. Nothing in nature is so. The plantations at 

 the bottom of the garden may decidedly run into those of the 

 park or field, and be extended into it as far as comports with 

 obtaining proper views from the house. 



Indeed the garden and the mere field can be yet further 

 united by the employment of a shrubbery walk round the 

 whole or a portion of the latter. Notwithstanding the charge 

 of affectation so freely imputed to walks of this kind, because 

 they skirt the actual boundary of a small place, it must be 

 averred that they are very useful in affording exercise within 

 the private domain, and in presenting the garden, house, and 

 exterior country in more varied aspects. In relation to even 

 a large park, a walk may often appropriately be carried for 

 some distance along one or more of its sides, or be directed 

 through some of its woods, especially where any picturesque 

 natural elements, such as rocks, broken ground, or steep 

 banks exist, or where the woods adjoin and furnish a sheet 

 of ornamental water. 



2. Shrubbery Walks. — A shrubbery walk should be in 

 all respects more simple than the garden in point of art. 

 The curves should be less studied, the margins slightly 

 rougher, and the material of an inferior and less polished 

 kind. The keeping also should be decidedly less perfect, 

 the dress and finish of the garden being quite undesirable 

 here. As much shade and shelter as possible should be 

 attained in such a walk, but it must not be without open 

 parts for sunshine and views. Here and there a, seat may 



