Flower-Gardeti, and Kitchen-Garden of a Mansion. 125 



employer ; who has a right to say, " What you have done is 

 perfectly just and correct; but I prefer having it thus, because 

 such is my particular taste." 



The plan before us consists of three parts : the house (a), the 

 flower-garden and scenery in front of it {h, i, I), and the kitchen- 

 garden (m). There is nothing in the position of these three 

 parts, as far as appears by the plan, to prevent them from form- 

 ing a very good whole. The kitchen-garden is very properly 

 placed on the same side with the domestic offices and the stables ; 

 and the latter are conveniently situated for the melon ground, 

 which are essential points. The kitchen-garden, as far as con- 

 cerns the space within the walls, is unexceptionable in point of 

 principle and of rule. The curved lines of the lawn (at 7n) 

 appear, on first glancing at the plan, to be in violation of a prin- 

 ciple, viz., that of the connection of the parts ; and an ill-natured 

 critic might say that there was no connection between the ser- 

 pentine line which bounds the turf, and the straight line of the 

 garden wall. This is true ; and also that there is nothing in the 

 one line that suggests anything in the other line ; and that, if they 

 were shown to any one separately, the idea would never occur 

 of bringing them together with the view of forming a whole. 

 In other words, that, if all the different lines which compose the 

 walks, walls, and turf boundaries of this plan were drawn sepa- 

 rately on a piece of paper, and classed as straight, angular, cur- 

 vilineal, &c., no one would choose the two lines objected to as 

 the most suitable for being brought together. This we state to 

 show the mode of analysing a plan, as far as concerns lines ; but, 

 with respect to the plan before us, when it is considered that the 

 space between the curved boundary of the turf and the straight 

 garden wall is to be planted with shrubs and trees, and, con- 

 sequently, that the straight line of the wall will be concealed, 

 the apparent objection falls to the ground. 



The parallelogram forming the flower-garden (marked h h) is 

 considered, by itself, unexceptionable, in point both of principle 

 and of rule. Whether such a flower-garden ought to be placed 

 directly in front of the house or not, must depend on the cha- 

 racter of the distant scenery seen from its windows ; the prin- 

 ciple of guidance being, the unity of expression of the entire 

 view. When the view from the lawn front of a house is of a 

 grand, forest-like, or mountainous character, a conspicuous 

 flower-garden in the foreground is incongruous with the general 

 effect; that is, it detracts from the unity of the expression. In 

 such a case, the foreground would express culture, softness, and 

 beauty ; and the middle distance, and distance, sylvan, alpine, or 

 savage grandeur : two expressions incompatible with each other. 

 If, in such cases, some local circumstance compels the artist to 

 form his flower-garden in front of the house, it ought to be con- 



