Paet III. CHARACTER OP THE BEDS. 369 



well for the less formal garden, or for one of humble pre- 

 tensions, they are by no means suited for the dressed geo- 

 metrical one. In this last turf walks are very troublesome 

 to keep trimmed; the grass, unless constantly attended to, 

 is deficient in neatness, and when cut is apt to litter the 

 beds ; in wet weather they are too damp to be used as walks ; 

 they require to be made of a breadth quite out of proportion 

 with the beds ; they are less in keeping with the character of 

 the house or the terraces and gravel walks about it ; and they 

 fail to give an expression of finish and importance. They 

 belong to another kind of garden. In the less formal garden 

 the walks may be of turf, as they may there be much broader 

 than in the geometrical garden ; but here again it is necessary 

 that the beds should be of good design, not placed at random, 

 without any connection with each other, or any regard to 

 symmetry and general effect ; and two or three beds cut in 

 turf, and dotted about here and there, have no merit what- 

 ever. They have no general design, which is an indispen- 

 sable condition of every kind of formal garden. They are 

 a mere imitation of it, without any regard to its true 

 principles. Still worse are they when the beds, even in turf, 

 affect to represent real objects, as birds, butterflies, or any 

 other form in nature ; and stars, crescents, hearts, and leaves, 

 are for the most part merely the refuge of those who are 

 incapable of composing good designs. 



A house may very properly stand on a broad terrace 

 (as a basement) which may be without any beds ; and may 

 either be on the same, or on a higher, level than its geo- 

 metrical garden; and from the latter a broad central and 

 two side flights of steps may lead down to a second terrace 

 garden, with geometrical beds, fountains, statues, and vases, as 

 in the upper garden, besides smaller vases on the balustrades 

 which bound and separate them. The beds themselves, 



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