APRIL. 171 



the President's house at Washington, in which the horse is 

 rearing high in air, fat, heavy and chnnsy, in an attitude that 

 no horse could maintain a moment, and in which the sculptor 

 found it necessary to provide with a monster tail, filled with 

 lead, in order to balance it, and covered with so many broad 

 straps and buckles, as suggests the idea of having been fur- 

 nished by a government contractor, at so much a piece ; and 

 " Old Hickory," instead of having all his^ energies concen- 

 trated upon the awful Avork and responsibility he has in 

 charge, seems meditating the probability of being unhorsed. 



BUCKINGHAM PALACE GARDEN. 



This garden is attached to the London residence of the 

 Q,ueen, and comprises about 40 acres, of which nearly five 

 acres are devoted to a lake. 



Considering how thoroughly this garden is embedded, as 

 it were, in the town, an acre for exclusively private use is 

 considered quite worthy of even a royal palace, especially as 

 it is bordered on the north side by Green Park, while the east 

 front of the palace overlooks the whole of St. James's Park, 

 with its large sheet of water. On the south and west sides 

 this garden is enclosed by streets and their accompanying 

 houses. The buildings on the southern side being most in- 

 conveniently near the palace and garden ; and being mostly 

 of an inferior character, have been shut out by a large bank 

 of earth, planted by trees and shrubs. 



The existence of a number of fine old elms, too, in the 

 western part of the gardens, excludes most of the houses of 

 Grosvenor Place, so that in fact the garden is rendered almost 

 entirely private during the summer; while, by the arrange- 

 ment of the planting in many parts, the most perfectly se- 

 cluded spots are secured where no efi'ort is required to imagine 

 one's self in the midst of a purely country district. 



In the front of the palace no attempt has been made to 

 obtain anything like an enriched garden, A plain lawn, with 

 nothing but some groups of old elm trees upon it, stretches 

 away between the palace and the water, taking more the 

 character of a small park scene than a garden would ; the 



