4 General Results of a Gardening Tour ; — 



mistaken; but, if he has his eyes open, he never can err in 

 forniino- an opinion as to the approach. As to the terraces 

 we cerfainly have no wish to alter them. At the time Gilpin 

 wrote, terraces were common, and the great rage was for na- 

 ture and the picturesque. That rage has now subsided ; and in 

 landscape-gardening, as in architecture, and in other arts which 

 combine beauty with utility, reason is the governing principle. 

 Of Mansion Residences, the first we saw in order of time was 

 Terrao-les, where some additions to the house were being 

 made,°and where the park had been sprinkled over with 

 sin<de trees, in the equidistant manner, so as to destroy all 

 allusion to natural grouping, and, in a great measure, oblite- 

 rate whatever variation of surface there was originally in the 

 o-round. These trees were chiefly oaks, from 20 to 30 ft. 

 hio-h : they were removed without any preparation, in the 

 preceding two years; and scarcely one of them had failed, 

 much to the credit of the very intelligent gardener, Mr. 

 Carruthers. Adjoining the house was an old architectural 

 garden, consisting of a level square platform, with thick, 

 lofty, hornbeam hedges, and on two sides a broad grass 

 terrace, between 20 and 30 ft. higher than the exterior 

 o-rounds. The view from this terrace to a new kitchen-garden, 

 which meets the eye on a gentle slope, backed by wood, is 

 striking, because uncommon, and is, we think, agreeable. By 

 the routine manner of improving, this garden would be turned 

 into a pleasure-ground ; but, from the impressions it made on 

 us, we should be inclined to retain it as a garden of fruit and 

 flowers. It was in excellent order. 



Jardine Hall, in the midst of what was recently a wild 

 country, and several miles distant from any similar mansion, is 

 an imposing object; and, as we approached it, the broad flight 

 of steps to the portico, with the group of stable offices with 

 clock cupola on the one side, and the encircled boundary wall 

 with its porticoed doors and ornamented railings on the other, 

 had an Anglo-Italian air, the more charming, because unex- 

 pected in such a style of country. The ample entrance hall 

 of this house contains some large handsome paintings, and 

 rare specimens of natural-history subjects ; and, like the first 

 bar in a piece of music, it gives a note of preparation for the 

 ornaments which prevail throughout the house, and for the 

 almost complete museum of British birds collected by Sir 

 William Jardine, and admirably mounted and displayed. There 

 is a large botanic garden, which already includes a consider- 

 able American ground; an arboretum, which will be as com- 

 plete as the climate will admit, is commenced; and Linnaean 

 and Jussieuean arrangements of herbaceous plants are in 



