Jan.] FLOWER GARDEN. 53 



and elegant grass openings, ranged various ways, all bordered with 

 shrubberies and other tree and shrub plantations, ilower compart- 

 ments, &c. disposed in a variety of different rural forms; in easy 

 bendings, concaves and straight ranges, occasionally; with inter- 

 vening breaks or opens of grass-ground, both to promote rural 

 diversity and for communication and prospect to the different divi- 

 sions; all the parts of the pleasure ground being so arranged, as 

 gradually to discover new scenes, each furnishing fresh variety, 

 both in the form of the design in different parts, as well as in the 

 disposition of the various trees, shrubs and flowers, and other orna- 

 ments and diversities. 



In designs for a pleasure-ground, according to modern taste, a 

 tract of ground of any considerable extent, may have the prospect 

 varied and diversified exceedingly, in a beautiful representation of 

 art and nature, as that in passing from one compartment to ano- 

 ther, still new varieties present themselves in the most agreeable 

 manner; and even if the figure of the ground is irregular, and the 

 surface has many inequalities, the whole may be improved without 

 any great trouble of squaring or levelling; for by humoring the 

 natural form, you may cause even the very irregularities and natu- 

 ral deformities to carry along with them an air of diversity and no- 

 velty which fail not to please and entertain most observers. 



In these rural works, however, we should not abolish entirely the 

 appearance of art and uniformity; for these, when properly applied, 

 give an additional beauty and peculiar grace to all our natural pro- 

 ductions, and set nature in the fairest and most beautiful point of 

 view. 



But some modern pleasure-grounds, in which rural design is 

 copied to an extreme, are often very barren of variety and entertain- 

 ment, as they frequently consist only of a grass lawn, like a great 

 field; having a running plantation of trees and shrubs all round it, 

 just broad enough to admit a gravel walk winding through it, in 

 the serpentine way, in many short twists and turns, and bordering 

 at every turn alternately upon the outward fence and the lawn; which 

 are continually obtruded upon the sight, exhibiting the same pro- 

 spect over and over, without the least variation; so as that after hav- 

 ing traversed the walks all around this sort of pleasure-ground, we 

 find no more variety or entertainment than at our first entrance, the 

 whole having presented itself at the first view. 



Therefore, in laying out pleasure-ground, the designer ought to 

 take particular care that the whole extent be not taken in at one 

 view; only exhibiting at first a large open lawn or other spacious 

 open compartment, or grand walk, &c. terminated on each side 

 with plantations of curious trees, shrubs, and flowers, exhibiting 

 only some opens at intervals, and behind these have compartments 

 of the like plantations, with grass openings, gravel walks, water, 

 and other ornaments; so that a spectator will be agreeably sur- 

 prised to find that what terminated his prospect only served as an 

 introduction to new beauties and varieties. 



It is impossible to exhibit any regular direction for planning an 

 extensive pleasure-ground, as the different figures and situations, 



