188 



JfooJen Rustic-work as Garden Ornaments. 



ance, was the work of my own hands ; and I was, of course, 

 proud of it as a specimen of my industry, if not of my taste. I 

 could have altered the turn of the walk, and have planted out 

 the nuisance ; but I wanted an immediate remedy, and the walk 

 was most convenient in its present state. I therefore put up a 

 rustic screen and doorway across the walk, which has con- 

 tributed greatly towards the effect I wished to produce; and 

 which, seen from the seat before mentioned, partly overrun with 

 ivy, and partly concealed by shrubs, may be supposed the en- 

 trance to a summer-house or hermitage. Having succeeded 

 thus far, a small worn-out barrel, which was useless for any 

 other purpose, suggested the idea that half of it, covered with 

 wood mosaic work, would make a pretty flower-basket ; and, as 

 it stands on a tripod, backed by a large shrub, and filled with 

 pelargoniums, Lophospermum erube'scens, Maurandya Barclay- 

 s/a, and moneywort (Zysimachia Nummularia), hanging in 

 graceful festoons over the sides, it has certainly an ornamental 

 effect. {Jig- 81.) To these little embellishments I added a 

 common movable seat, and a basketwork of impeded hazel 

 rods round the centre flower-beds; and thus, with no other 

 materials than such as were procured from the wood-stack, and 

 from my neighbour the woodcutter (a man very learned in the 

 twisting and splitting of wood), I have contrived to give my 

 garden as much ornament as its size will allow, and to sub- 

 stitute for its former tameness a picturesque and decorated ap- 

 pearance. My aim has been to effect this without having too 

 much ornament, and to have nothing that forces itself on the 



