JULY. 



305 



By those deep tufts that shroud your fathers' tombs, 

 Spare, ye profane, their venerable glooms ! 

 To violate their sacred age, beware. 

 Which even the awe-struck hand of time doth spare, 

 Too soon, alas ! to fate their strength must yield, 

 Too soon shall younger trees usurp the field ! 

 The axe will fall : on earth's cold bosom laid, 

 Defiled with dust, their branch and leaf shall fade." 



In the third book, the author speaks of the lawn, in the 

 management of which he recommends EngUsh examples for 

 a pattern. 



" The water-pot, the scythe, thy hand should bear, 

 And tend the turf with never-ceasing care; 

 Allay its thirst, crop its luxuriant head, 

 And, with the roller, press the verdant bed ; 

 From the smooth surface of the level lawn. 

 With care be each usurping blade withdrawn ; 

 Then, soft as down, the tender turf may lie, 

 And oft the waste of withering time supply. 

 The rich luxuriance of the shaven green 

 Should grace the fore-ground of the lovely scene. 

 Afar let herds amid the pastures feed. 

 And they alone will cultivate the mead. 

 Thus numerous fatlings in your parks will stray, 

 Enrich the field and make the landscape gay. 

 Nor blush to hear the sheep or useful cow. 

 Slow winding in the valley, bleat or low. 

 For though blind pride their simple charms disdain, 

 They grace the soil and animate the plain." 



But a wide extent of lawn is useless, unless the scene is 

 diversified by taste. All measured forms, all tasteless circles 

 and formal squares, must be avoided, and the grounds must 

 not be made tame by symmetry. Variety and unstudied 

 irregularity should prevail in the arrangement of objects. 

 Here let the green surface steal into the bosom of the em- 

 bracing woods that shall conceal its course ; the wood should 

 advance to meet the lawn in one place, and retire in another, 

 to yield a space to the green plain. Yet all these things are 

 apt to become insipid without the addition of flowers, that 

 give a lovelier smile to nature's face. The author recom- 

 mends a profusion of flowers in all parts of the cultivated 

 landscape. He would not confine them to the parterre, bat 



VOL. XXIL NO. VII. 39 



