Edgings, Grass Lawns, Kitchen-gardens. 519 



tiful when applied to gravel walks ; but on this subject we need 

 only refer to what we have said before. (Vol. VII. p. 544.) 



Grass Latrnis. — We observed very few lawns in Scotland 

 that were mown often enough to produce a very fine velvet 

 turf; a circumstance easily accounted for, from the absence 

 of the proprietors, and the slender means left to keep their 

 seats in order. More or less of lawn with smooth turf, and 

 of walks covered with a fine, compact, and bright-coloured 

 gravel, are, with us, essential to the luxury of every country 

 house. When the recently invented mowing machine, which 

 we are happy to find is coming generally into use throughout 

 England (p. 34.), becomes general in Scotland, we may, how- 

 ever, hope that lawns will be kept as we could wish them. 

 The gravel in the west of Scotland is generally rough, loose, 

 and very unpleasant to walk on. In some places rotten rock 

 is used as a substitute for gravel, which makes, when power- 

 fully rolled, a very agreeable surface to walk on, though not 

 one very pleasant to the eye. Where no gravel abounds 

 naturally, there is always in Scotland a very good substitute 

 to be found in finely broken stone ; for example, in granite, 

 basalt, sandstone, or some variety of bright coloured-schistus ; 

 and this broken stone, when firmly rolled, forms an elegant 

 and durable as well as agreeable walk. The use of a heavy 

 roller for compression, and of salt or handweeding for destroy- 

 ing the weeds, instead of loosening the surface by the hoe, as 

 well as of dried clay in powder to mix with and bind river 

 gravel, seemed to us to be generally wanting. Indeed, the 

 use of a roller, which will give five or six times the pressure 

 which by any possibility can come on a walk or road, is not 

 even generally understood by engineers in England. Our 

 attention was first directed to it by a friend (Mr. Tomalin), 

 who is of opinion, that by the use of very heavy rollers, after 

 making or mending roads, they might every where be rendered 

 as smooth as gravel walks, and as durable as pavement. 

 Burnt clay which contains iron often assumes a beautiful red- 

 dish yellow colour, and might form a very good substitute for 

 Kensington gravel. 



The Kitchen-gardens in Scotland are generally formed at 

 greater expense, and kept afterwards with more care and 

 neatness, than they are in England. The reason may be, that 

 the climate requires a greater variety of fruits to be cultivated 

 against walls ; and that the kitchen-garden, being usually well 

 sheltered, and also ornamented with flowers, is, contrary to 

 the English practice, as much used as a place to walk in, by 

 the female part of the family, as the pleasure-ground. We 

 found some Scotch kitchen-gardens kept with remarkable 



