PIP ORE OF GARDEN. 31 



where the aspect is good; the remaining boundary 

 being completed by a hedge, and sunk wall of four 

 feet, consisting of dry stones pointed with lime. 

 And with such advantages, surely there ought to 

 be no penurious grudging on the part of the pos- 

 sessor in regard to nursing the hedge, temporary 

 paling, or a little <extra expence, by which the esti- 

 mate on this plan may exceed that of the uniform 

 and allowed dimensions. An equally high and 

 four-cornered garden wall, staring in the open field, 

 is the most unseemly thing that can be set down 

 on the surface of the earth. If your house stand 

 in such a garden, it looks like a prison; and all the 

 flowers within such a boundary of stone appear not 

 otherwise than as a parterre for the amusements of 

 bedlam. Should the house be a little remote, still 

 the huge square box of a garden annihilates every 

 possible trace of natural beauty; and this it does 

 equally in every degree of littleness or of magni- 

 ficence. Witness many villas witness Floors. 1 

 The shape must vary according to circumstances; 

 but in general angles may be avoided, and two or 

 three of the sides may consist of wall; but some- 

 thing of the cresent form, opening its arms to the 

 sun, ought to be preferred; and then the figure 

 may be completed in a way the least offensive, by 

 a low hedge surmounting a sunk wall, which is but 

 little obtrusive. 



Still the visible line of demarcation is bad; and 



1 The seat of the Duke of Roxburgh, whose splendid park is 

 thus disfigured. 



