158 Notes and Reflections duriiig a Tour. 



and closer, and they would by that means retain more moisture 

 in the soil, so as to continue growing, and consequently green, 

 during summer. The same selection of grasses will insure a 

 uniformity of growth in lawns and pastures, instead of that 

 coarseness and tuftiness which is now almost every where 

 common in lawns on dry soils. The recent invention of a 

 mowing machine, which operates better on dry grass than on 

 a moist surface, will also contribute greatly to the improve- 

 ment of the lawns in France, and in other countries with very 

 dry warm summers ; more especially when this machine shall 

 be so much enlarged and improved as to be worked by a 

 horse. The sands and gravels of France are generally loose, 

 and very disagreeable to work on : by mixing the gravels 

 with burnt clay pulverised, or the sands with tar, or any oily 

 or greasy matter, they will become hard, so as not to require 

 that continual hoeing and raking which, in their present state, 

 renders them more like ground newly sown with seeds than 

 paths for walking on. Evergreen shrubs do not thrive very 

 well in France, from the great severity of the winters ; it is 

 surprising how few there are in the natural woods every 

 where ; and the gardens in the neighbourhood of Paris pre- 

 sent a dreary appearance during several months every year, 

 for want of what contributes so much to the beauty of those 

 in the neighbourhood of London during the same season. 

 This defect may be remedied by the more free use of the 

 hardier evergreens, such as box, yew, holly, juniper, common 

 and Portugal laurel, butcher's broom, ivy, &c. : of the rapid- 

 growing evergreens, such as the t/lex iSpartium, &c. (which, 

 if they are easily killed by frost, are easily renewed from seed), 

 and by planting the more tender American evergreens, as 

 rhododendrons, kalmias, vacciniums, &c., under the protection 

 of deciduous trees, in the manner of undergrowths to them. 

 In short, though we cannot altogether agree with the patriotic 

 sentiment of our excellent friend Soulange Bodin [Annates de 

 Fromont, torn. iii. p. 96.), in his assertion that France is pre- 

 eminently the country of landscape-gardening, yet we are con- 

 fident that there is no defect in that country, either natural or 

 artificial, which may not be greatly mitigated, if not entirely 

 removed, by the resources of art. 



The Improvement isoMch an English Landscape-Gar dener may 

 derive from studying the state of his art in France is greater 

 than might at first sight appear. By observing the exagge- 

 ration of either beauties or deformities, the causes of the 

 pleasure or the dislike that they excite are more easily dis- 

 covered; and consequently our resources for enlarging the 

 one or diminishing the other increased. Moderation in the 



