478 Planting of small Pleasure-Grounds. 



more desirable to assist in embellishing a lawn of considerable 

 extent than the cedar of Lebanon; but, placed, as it may fre- 

 quently be seen, upon a grass plot of a few poles square, and 

 sometimes even in the frontage of small villas, every thing like 

 proportion is destroyed ; while scarcely any room is left for orna- 

 mental shrubs; the variety of which, at the present day, is so 

 great, and many of which are so very beautiful and appropriate 

 for ornamenting villas of the class under consideration. 



If we descend lower in the scale of architectural erections, 

 viz., to such as scarcely deserve the name of villas, continual 

 mistakes present themselves in the choice made of trees and 

 shrubs for embellishment: for instance, we may frequently see 

 Scotch pines, or spruce firs, planted for screens to hide walls ; 

 than which nothing can be less appropriate : a few laurels, or 

 other evergreens of similar habits, would answer the purpose 

 far better, and be more ornamental ; besides, as the cases are but 

 few, in the immediate vicinity of the metropolis, where the pine 

 and fir tribe will thrive, they should be the last kind of trees re- 

 sorted to for such purposes ; and, even were they to thrive well, 

 they would soon grow so large as to be out of all proportion 

 to the situations in which they are placed. 



Perhaps it is but seldom that professional persons are en- 

 gaged in the laying out and planting of such gardens as those 

 now under consideration, therefore animadversions upon the 

 subject are not likely to be of much avail; but, if it were other- 

 wise, many faults of the above description might be pointed out, 

 as the result of bad taste or incorrect judgment; and such ob- 

 servations might lead to a better mode of distributing trees and 

 shrubs in accordance with good taste, as well as to an arrange- 

 ment more likely to answer the purposes intended. 



In adverting to the country villa (the embellishing of which, 

 when properly done, forms its principal feature of attraction), it 

 may not be amiss to observe, that, in the operation of planting, 

 it is very easy to slide into mistakes, by the introduction of such 

 trees as may be favourites, but which may, at the same time, be 

 completely at variance with everything like a fitness or adapta- 

 tion for the situations given to them. Reflection, in cases of this 

 kind, is therefore necessary; and the consideration should not be, 

 what the tree is at the time of planting, or what it may be for 

 seven years to come, but what it will be when arrived at maturity, 

 as already hinted. Where high screening is necessary for the 

 sake of privacy, which is frequently the case in the vicinity of 

 London (as there, in many instances, a gentleman may be over- 

 looked from the windows of a neighbouring villa), perhaps the 

 pine and fir tribe may be advantageous ; as, being evergreens, 

 the privacy produced by them will be permanent : but, where 

 there is only room for a single row, neither the silver nor spruce 



