366 DRESSED OR GEOMETRICAL GARDENS. Paet III. 



viii.), and others.* We must not however be satisfied to 

 adopt for any garden the design or the patterns of beds we 

 may accidentally see and be pleased with elsewhere ; the 

 form of the ground, the character and dimensions of the 

 house, and many other peculiarities must, as I have already 

 observed, be considered ; and it is for this reason that 

 universal rules cannot be laid down. But though without 

 knowing all its conditions it is impossible to establish before- 

 hand the proper distribution of a garden, some general ideas 

 of the patterns and their colours may be suggested, and any 

 one may adopt or modify them according to circumstances. 



It sometimes happens that the house stands in a hollow, 

 with a fall or slope from the garden, which always has a dis- 

 agreeable effect, not only from an idea of the water draining 

 towards the house, but from its taking away from the 

 dignity of the principal object, to which the garden and 

 every other part should be subservient. In such a case 

 this remedy may be suggested : that a certain space, large 

 enough for the geometrical garden, be lowered to at least the 

 same level as the house, and that this space be laid out in 

 beds, with a terrace wall at the farther end, on the 

 original level of that part. This, it is true, reverses the 

 order of the terrace and its walk, and you descend by 

 steps from the terrace towards the house ; but the incon- 

 venience and bad effect of the slope towards the house is 

 thereby remedied, and the terrace wall with its ornamental 

 balustrade, at the opposite end of the intermediate garden, is 

 not an unsightly object from the house, the geometrical 

 design of the beds being between them. At the base 

 of the terrace wall may be a sloping bed or border of 

 mixed flowers; in which hollyhocks may predominate; 



* Since writing the above, I have had an opportunity of seeing Kemp's 

 " How to lay out a Garden," in which are many useful hints both for grounds 

 and gardens. 



