212 On the present Style of Ornamental Gardening. 



that, no terrace could strictly so be called ; whereas I con- 

 ceive the main object of a terrace to have been for the pur- 

 pose of obtaining, in most, but particularly bad, seasons, a dry 

 and healthy promenade; and, no doubt, if from this pro- 

 menade an extensive scene was commanded, the enjoyment of 

 the exercise taken thereon would be greatly enhanced. If we 

 define a terrace merely as a long and spacious straight walk, 

 no one will object to the introduction of it; and I think I may 

 affirm, that those of your readers who possess one will agree 

 with me in confirming the enjoyment they have derived thereon. 

 Of those houses built in the reigns of Charles II., James II., 

 William and Mary, and Anne, some exception to my original 

 position may be judiciously made; for, to follow strictly the 

 trim style of gardening which was originally adopted by their 

 possessors, and considered then as appropriate, would be, in 

 truth, to return to a style which was introduced in bad taste, 

 and ought, therefore, to be discarded. Where such houses 

 remain, it will be well perhaps to keep up their gardens par- 

 tially, introducing with them, or engrafting upon them, the 

 better style of Palladian gardening, that, too, which imme- 

 diately succeeded ; by which we can only subject ourselves to 

 the same species of reproach, if reproach it can be called, as 

 that given to our munificent ancestors, when they completed 

 the Saxon or Norman cathedral with the then newer style of 

 Gothic. 



It is a mistaken notion to suppose that because we enjoy 

 not the climate of Italy, we cannot, therefore, appropriate to 

 this country the Italian stjle of garden. It is also a mistaken 

 notion to consider the Italian style of gardening peculiarly 

 adapted to the Italian climate. Those of your readers who 

 have visited Rome in the winter season, will agree with me in 

 enthusiastic admiration of their gardens at that season of the 

 year. By an Englishman the gardens of the Villa Borghese 

 and Pamphili Doria can never be forgotten. But he has 

 visited them in winter ; he has seen and enjoyed them at that 

 season, for the amelioration of the rigours of which they have 

 been constructed, for even at Rome a winter has its rigours. 

 Let him visit these gardens in summer, and he will find them 

 a very pandemonium. If his eyesight recovers from the glare 

 of their blazing ornaments, he will not so easily forget the in- 

 tolerable heats he has found collected in them, and their almost 

 total want of shade ; for the shade of evergreens, be they the 

 beautiful /^lex or spreading Stone pine, is not true shade to an 

 Englishman, accustomed as he is to the delicate and umbra- 

 geous foliage of our deciduous natives, the oak, &c. By as 

 much, therefore, as our climate throughout the year approaches 



