216 THE MAGAZINE OF HORTICULTURE. 



walks up the centre of them appear modern, and a number of 

 ornamental shrubs and low trees have been planted along the 

 side of the wall, near the Bayswater foad, where I observed 

 many tulip trees, a few liquidambers, and a group of golden 

 yews labelled a seedling variety ; while a new walk, bordered 

 with a better class of ornamental plants and adorned with 

 summer flowers, has been made nearly parallel to Rotten- 

 row on the south side, and the old kitchen gardens, behind 

 the palace, have been entirely removed to give place to hand- 

 some villas. 



Standing near the palace, which is an old brick building 

 without any architectural style whatever, and looking east- 

 ward, the leading features of the gardens present themselves, 

 and consist in three principal openings or avenues, the best of 

 which are terminated by Hyde Park, the intermediate and 

 surrounding parts being filled in with dense masses of ancient 

 trees. As the avenues are not sufficiently regular, or con- 

 tracted, to acquire the dignity of art, and not expanded or 

 broken enough to resemble nature, this scene is by no means 

 impressive, like that at Hampton Court, and none of the vis- 

 tas are at all happily terminated ; but there is a massiveness 

 about the trees, an appearance of age, and a total absence of 

 anything that indicates the proximity of the town, which 

 cannot fail to produce a striking effect on the observer, es- 

 pecially on a summer's day. The view down these avenues 

 from the other side of the gardens, near the Serpentine, is 

 much better, being terminated by Kensington Palace. At 

 various other parts of the gardens these main avenues are 

 crossed at different angles by a number of other avenues or 

 vistas, which possess the great fault peculiar to that style of 

 gardening, namely, that they are not properly connected with 

 each other by any appropriate or necessary link, and that they 

 have no sufficiently definite object. It cannot be too strongly 

 urged that large, straight walks will only be effective when 

 they are obviously parts of some regular and symmetrical de- 

 sign, or conduct to some object important enough to justify 

 their employment. One of the broad walks in these gardens 

 is, however, very fine in itself; it has a row of excellent elms 



