Open-air Culture and Management. B/^S 



covered with short dung or leaves, and only pointed once 

 a year with a fork, about three inches deep. Much might 

 be said on this subject, if we had time and room. 



As Points of Management and Keeping, which we have had 

 to find fault with, more or less, in almost every gentleman's 

 seat we have seen since we left London, we must again 

 recur to the subjects of edges of walks, edges of dug clumps, 

 and the dug surfaces of clumps of shrubs. There are few 

 things more offensive to our eye than the spade marks along 

 the edges of walks and of dug beds or clumps. They ought 

 to be offensive to every eye as well as ours, because these 

 marks constitute lines ; and, considered as lines, they are so 

 large as to diminish the apparent size of every other object 

 near them. Their recent appearance, also, in consequence of 

 their being continually fresh cut, is offensive; because it 

 directs attention to the means rather than to the end, and thus 

 prevents the full enjoyment of the scene : just as the scaffold- 

 ing, if left in front of a newly built house after it was finished, 

 would prevent the full enjoyment of its architectural beauty. 

 In an economical point of view, deep harsh edgings, uncovered 

 with green, are as objectionable as they are in point of beauty ; 

 for in spring, in consequence of the alternate rains and frosts 

 of the preceding winter, they will be found to have mouldered 

 down, and rendered the gravel dirty and unsightly. Shallow 

 and covered with a web of grass, neither frost nor rain can 

 have any such effect upon them. We have before given max- 

 imums of the depth of edgings in the most dressed scenery ; 

 and we shall now add that it is not sufficient that this depth 

 be adhered to, but that the depth, whatever it may be, 

 should be covered with grass close down to the gravel of the 

 walk or earth of the bed. The spade, in short, after the 

 walks and their margins are once properly formed, can never 

 again require to be used, except, perhaps, once a year in 

 the winter time, to cut off any underground stolones of grass 

 which may have found their way from the margin into the 

 gravel of the walk, or the soil of the bed. The grass may 

 always be kept sufficiently short by the verge shears. The 

 first place, after leaving Manchester, where we saw due at- 

 tention paid to verges, was Hoole House, Lady Brough ton's; 

 the next was the Walton nursery, Mr. Skirving's ; and the 

 third and fourth, Mrs. Starkey's at Bowness, and Mr. Bar- 

 ber's at Grasmere. In these places the principle was at- 

 tended to throughout; at Tatton Park, Hootton Hall, 

 Lathom House, Rufford Hall, Storr's Hall, and a few other 

 places, it was attended to, more or less, in different parts of 

 the grounds, but not in all. 



