071 the present Style of Ornamental Gardening, 89 



softened imitations of Nature's harshnesses ; or, in other and 

 more intelligible words, depositories of damp and wretched- 

 ness, which, as I before remarked, they must exhibit, consti- 

 tuted as they are, throughout the greater portion of the year. 

 The remedy I would suggest for these evils is simple ; it is, 

 moreover, easily acquired. We must give up the brilliant 

 honour we have obtained of having created a model of gar- 

 dening for the world, and condescend , to borrow from our 

 neighbours on the Continent some of that architectural taste 

 in gardening in which many of them have so much excelled ; 

 we must engraft upon our own romantic harshnesses something 

 that vi^ill accord better with the equipment of the interior of 

 our residences, something like furniture and ornament, and 

 not leap from our windows into jungles, and steppes, and wil- 

 dernesses, where the lion and panther would be more at home 

 than the " lady with her silken sheen," We must, in fact, 

 adapt our gardens, that at least which adjoins the house, to 

 the building, and make them a part of it, appropriate, and 

 such as, in the times when those buildings were erected, were 

 considered suited to each particular class. If we take a re- 

 view of our country residences, we shall find them to be, or: 

 to have been, either the baronial castle, such as Warwick and 

 Raby, ancient; Belvoir, and Lowther, and Eastnor, modern ; or 

 the monastic and conventual houses, such as, at the dissolution 

 of the monasteries, were granted to the great and powerful of 

 their time, of which the greater part of many now remain, and 

 are private dwellings, Ashridge and Eaton being imitations ; 

 or the Elizabethan and Inigo Jones buildings, of which are 

 Audley End, Longleat, and WoUaton; or the great square, 

 edifices, with projecting roofs, of William and Mary's time, of 

 which is part of Hampton Court, and Belton in Lincolnshire ; 

 or the Palladian palace and villa, of which are Blenheim, 

 Stowe, Keddleston, Chiswick, and Mereworth. To give them 

 gardens appropriate to their individual styles and eras of 

 building, would not only add truth and consistency to the 

 character of each place, — an object hitherto sadly neglected, 

 although generally allowed to be desirable, — but it would 

 give also to the possessor an opportunity of introducing that 

 description of garden ground which I contend to be best 

 adapted to our climate. Each style of building would give us 

 permission, as it were, to ornament, to furnish highly our gar- 

 dens, to decorate them with masonry, to place statues and 

 vases and ballustrades and steps about them, and to enrich 

 them with that most charming of all garden ornaments, the 

 terrace ; all of which rich accompaniments, by carrying the 

 eye from the interior ornaments of the chambers to the 



