Bibliographical Notices. 368 



contemptible, that might not, unless jealously restricted in its fertility, 



become a scourge to the rest of the living creation A locust is 



not in itself a very redoubtable foe, and, were it not for the dire expe- 

 rience of its ravages, would be as little feared as the grasshopper that 

 chirps in our meadows ; nevertheless, as we are told, there is an Eastern 

 fable, which says that upon the wing of the locust is an inscription 

 to this effect : — ' We are the army of the Most High God : we lay 

 ninety and nine eggs ; did we lay the hundredth, we should eat up the 

 whole world and all that it contains : ' and the language of this 

 splendid orientalism, forcible as it is, is by no means too strong for 

 the occasion." 



Parks and Pleasure-Grounds, or Practical Notes on Country Resi- 

 dences, Villas, Public Parks and Gardens. By Charles H. J. 

 Smith, Landscape Gardener and Garden Architect, &c. &c. Lon- 

 don: Reeve, 1852, post 8vo, pp. 290. 



The author tells us in his preface, "The design of the following work 

 is altogether a practical one. While engaged in his profession during 

 the last eighteen years, the author has often been requested to re- 

 commend a book which might enable persons consulting him to ac- 

 quire some general knowledge of the principles of Landscape Garden- 

 ing, and which might aid them in carrying his suggestions into effect." 

 As he states, most of the existing works on this subject are general 

 treatises calculated for forming and cultivating the taste, rather than 

 practical treatises on the operations of carrying out the principles ; 

 hence he has been induced to give the results of his experience in a 

 form accessible and available to all of ordinary education. The work 

 consists of a series of chapters treating separately of the different de- 

 partments and classes of operations, commencing with instructions 

 for choosing the site and arrangement of the plan and style of the 

 house ; and in the eight following chapters, the gardens, pleasure- 

 grounds, park, plantations, water, &c. are treated in detail. Then 

 we have a chapter on public parks and gardens, useful at the present 

 time, since it contains many sensible suggestions. The villa and its 

 appurtenances, as a more frequent if not so ambitious subject of the 

 art, has its special chapter ; and after another of ' general observa- 

 tions,' the volume closes with two chapters on ' the Arboretum ' and 

 'the Pinetum.' 



The views inculcated appear to us judicious, and the practical in- 

 structions are conveyed in simple and perspicuous language, so that 

 Mr. Smith's book seems to us exceedingly well-calculated to fulfill the 

 object with which ii was prepared ; and it may be remarked that the 

 diffusion of a treatise like this, which gives at once a clear and com- 

 pendious view of the points to be kept in view in planning work of 

 this nature, must be of great advantage not only to those who have 

 the conduct of such operations, but to persons whose taste induces 

 them to enter upon improvements on their own property, and who in 

 the absence of experience but too frequently raise monuments to their 

 own incapacity. 



