SITUATION, SOIL, CHAP. 



espalier, apple-trees, are just so many immense garlands 

 of carnations. The walks are unshaded : they are not 

 greasy or covered with moss, in the spring of the year, 

 like those in the shrubberies : to watch the progress of 

 the crops is by no means unentertaining to any rational 

 creature ; and the kitchen-garden gives you all this long 

 before the ornamental part of the garden affords you any 

 thing worth looking at. Therefore, I see no reason for 

 placing the kitchen-garden in some out-of-the-way place, 

 at a distance from the mansion-house, as if it were a mere 

 necessary evil, and unworthy of being viewed by the 

 owner. In the time of fruiting, where shall we find any 

 thing much more beautiful to behold than a tree loaded 

 with cherries, peaches, or apricots, but particularly the 

 two latter ? It is curious enough, that people decorate 

 their chimney-pieces with imitations of these beautiful 

 fruits, while they seem to think nothing at all of the 

 originals hanging upon the tree, with all the elegant ac- 

 companiments of flourishing branches, buds, and leaves. 



17. We must take, as I said before, the best ground 

 that we have j and, for my part, I would take it almost 

 any where, except in the front of a mansion-house. It 

 must absolutely be open to the south : well-sheltered, if 

 it can be, from the north and from the east ; but open to 

 the south it must be, or you can have neither fine wall- 

 fruit, nor early crops of garden-plants. If you can have 

 the slope, such as I have described it to have been at 

 Waverley, it is easy to make a flat before the face of the 

 wall, on the north side of the garden : but, to have the 

 whole of a garden upon a slope is by no means desirable ; 

 for, however gentle the slope may be, the water will run 



