THE MANSE GARDEN. 27 



length not less than two feet, such stones being 

 valued not by the weight, but by the difficulty of 

 finding them. 



Supposing the legal dimensions and proper mate- 

 rials freely granted, you may by a little management 

 and taste, at nearly the same cost, have a much more 

 efficient fruit wall, and an equally good fence on all 

 sides, with less of formality in the appearance. This 

 is to be done by diminishing the length of mason 

 work, and by adding to the height, 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 possessor, in regard to 

 nursing the hedge, temporary paling, or a little 

 extra expense, by which the estimate on this plan 

 may exceed that of the uniform and allowed dimen- 

 sions. 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 flowers within such 

 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 magnificence. Witness many villas 

 witness Floors.* The shape must vary according to 

 circumstances ; but in general angles may be avoided, 



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

 thus disfigured. 



