VII. SHRUBBERIES. 



The ground should be made smooth, therefore, when it 

 is digged : all hares and rabbits kept out, for they are 

 very mischievous in shrubberies, barking during the 

 winter many of the trees of the most valuable kind. 

 During the summer, there should be two or three hoeings 

 to prevent weeds from growing, and a nice raking once 

 a week to take up any leaves that may have fallen ; for 

 no trees or flowers will be seen to advantage unless they 

 stand upon a spot that is in neat order. Shrubs should 

 not be too much crowded by any means ; it cramps 

 them in their growth, makes their shoots feeble, makes 

 their bloom imperfect, and they hide one another : a" 

 shrubbery should not be a mass of indistinguishable 

 parts ; but an assemblage of objects each clearly dis- 

 tinguished from the other. The distribution should be 

 such as to insure bloom in every season that bloom can 

 be had j and, though shade is in some cases desirable, 

 flowering shrubs, to be beautiful, must not be shaded, 

 except in instances so few as not to warrant the suppo- 

 sition that there is ever to be a departure from the 

 general rule. 



317. If there be water, every eye tells you that it 

 ought to be bordered by grass ; or, if of larger dimen- 

 sions, by trees the boughs of which touch its very edge : 

 bare ground and water do not suit at all. It was formerly 

 the fashion to have a sort of canal, with broad grass 

 walks on the sides, and with the water coming up 

 to within a few inches of the closely shaven grass j 

 and certainly few things were more beautiful than these 

 Sir WILLIAM TEMPLE had one of his own constructing 

 in his gardens at MOOR PARK. On the outsides of the 



