1020 



PRACTICE OF GARDENING. 



PART III. 



718 



7255. Convenience, as well as effect, require that every house ought to have an entrance- 

 front, and a garden-front ; and, in general cases, neither the latter, nor the views from 

 the principal rooms, should be seen fully and completely, but from the windows and 

 garden-scenery. Not to attend to this, is to destroy their contrasted effect, and cloy the 

 appetite by disclosing all, or the greatest part of the beauties at once. The landscape 

 which forms the back ground to a mansion, the trees which group with it, and the archi- 

 tectural terrace which forms its base, are to be considered as its accompaniments, and in- 

 fluenced more or less by its style. The classic pine and cedar should accompany the Greek 

 and Roman architecture ; and the hardy fir, the oak, or the lofty ash, the baronial castle. 



7256. Terrace and conservatory. We observed, when treating of ground, and under 

 the ancient style, that the design of the terrace must be jointly influenced by the mag- 

 nitude and style of the house, the views from its windows, ; that is, from the eye of a 

 person seated in the middle of the principal rooms,) and the views of the house from a 

 distance. In almost every case, more or less of architectural form will enter into these 

 compositions. The level or levels will be supported partly by grassy slopes, but chiefly 

 by stone walls, harmonising with the lines and forms of the house. These, in the 

 Gothic style, may be furnished by battlements, gateways, oriels, pinnacles, &c. ; or, on 

 a very great scale, watch-towers may form very picturesque, characteristic, and useful 

 additions. The Grecian style may, in like manner, be finished by parapets, balustrades, 

 and other Roman appendages. 



7257. The breadth of terraces, and their 

 height relatively to the level of the floor of the 

 living-rooms, must depend jointly on the height 

 of the floor of the living-rooms and the sur- 

 face of the grounds or country to be seen over 

 them. Too broad or too high a terrace will 

 both have the effect of foreshortening a lawn 

 with a declining surface, or concealing a near 

 valley. The safest mode in doubtful cases is, 

 not to form this appendage till after the prin- 

 cipal floor is laid, and then to determine the 

 details of the terrace by trial and correction. 



7258. Narrow terraces are entirely occupied 

 as promenades, and may be either gravelled 

 or paved : and different levels, when they ex- 

 ist, connected by inclined planes or flights of 

 steps. Where the breadth is more than is 

 requisite for walks, the borders may be kept 

 in turf with groups or marginal strips of flow- 

 ers and low shrubs. In some cases, the ter- 

 race-walls may be so extended as to enclose 

 ground sufficient for a level plot to be used as 

 a bowling-green or a flower-garden. These 



are generally connected with one of the living-rooms or the conservatory, and to the latter is frequently 

 joined an aviary and the entire range of botanic stoves. Or, the aviary may be made an elegant de- 

 tached building, so placed as to group with the house and other surrounding objects. An elegant struc- 

 ture of this sort (fig.TlS.) was designed by Repton for the grounds of the Pavilion at Brighton. 



7259. The Jloiver-garden should join both the conservatory and terrace ; and, where 

 the botanic stoves do not join the conservatory and the house, they, and also the aviary and 

 other appropriate buildings and decorations, should be placed here. (See 6076. and 6161.) 



7260. The kitchen-garden should be placed near to, and connected with the flower- 

 garden, with concealed entrances and roads leading to the domestic offices for culinary 

 purposes, and to the stables and farm-buildings for manure. (See 2382.) 



7261. The situation of the orchard should, all other circumstances being suitable, be 

 near to the kitchen-garden ; and between them may be very properly placed the garden- 

 er's house, connected with the furnace, sheds, fruit-rooms, &c. (See 2527.) 



7262. The lawn, or that breadth of mown turf formed in front of, or extending in dif- 

 ferent directions from, the garden-front of the house, is, in the geometric style, varied 

 by architectural forms, levels, and slopes ; and in the modern by a picturesque or 

 painter-like disposition of groups, placed so as to connect with the leading masses, and 

 throw the lawn into an agreeable shape or shapes. In very small villas the lawn may 

 embrace the garden or principal front of the house, without the intervention of terrace- 

 scenery, and may be separated from the park, or park-like field, by a light wire fence ; 

 but in more extensive scenes it should embrace a terrace, or some avowedly artificial 

 architectural basis to the mansion, and a sunk wall, as a distant separation, will be 

 more dignified and permanent than any iron fence. The park may come close up to 

 the terrace-garden, especially in a flat situation, or where the breadth of the terrace is 

 considerable. 



7263. The shrubbery generally connects the house and flower-gardens, and forms, 

 strictly speaking, a part of the pleasure-ground scenery. It is a scene in which the ob- 

 ject is to arrange a collection of foreign trees and shrubs in a dry border, generally on 

 the north side of a walk, or in dug groups and patches. One very principal consider- 

 ation is, to connect, partly in appearance only, the dug patches. The distinct uncon- 

 nected obtrusion of such scenes is justly reprobated by Price, who gives excellent in- 



