284- Design for laying out 



to set out with, in order to purchase the ground, which, if 

 within ten miles of London, would, for 1 00 acres, cost at least 

 5000/. This sum, to a society so numerous as we have no 

 doubt that contemplated by our correspondent would speedily 

 become, would be much more likely to be raised than by a 

 society exclusively devoted to arboriculture, which is not likely 

 to command so many members. 



Whether a society for the improvement of taste in archi- 

 tecture and rural scenery be commenced apart or in connection 

 with an arboricultural society, at all events we trust that the 

 former will be immediately taken into consideration. — Cond. 



Art. IV. A Series of Designs Jor laying out and planting Floiver- 

 Gardens, rvith Remarks on each by tJie Conductor. Design 2., by 

 Lancastriensis. 



The remarks made by Lancastriensis on the design j*^-. 29. 

 (p. 238, 239.) are as follow : — " The plan of a flower-garden 

 submitted to your readers in VII. p. 726-7. [and p. 239. in the 

 present volume] has its beds too formally arranged. There are 

 two oval beds near the dwelling, which are objectionable, on 

 account of their being placed alongside each other, which gives 

 them too much the appearance of mechanical arrangement, in- 

 stead of the natural and picturesque. Square lines ought not to 

 be admitted ; they show at once the work of art, and that the 

 ' line and rule ' have been employd, whicli ought not to be the 

 case. Formality cannot be too much avoided : let the trees and 

 beds be so placed, as that to remove one would tlisarrange the 

 whole, and as if they had fallen from Nature's lap." 



These remarks are not sufficiently in detail to enable us to 

 discover whether their author is very conversant with the subject 

 or not. Judging from the objection made to the two oval beds 

 near the dwelling, which are said to be " objectionable, on 

 account of their being placed alongside of each other," we should 

 think not. They are objectionable, not because they are placed 

 alongside each other, but because tliey are so placed as to have 

 no indissoluble connection either with each other, or with any- 

 thing else ; they do not combine with the other parts of the 

 design near to them to form a whole: on the contrary, they 

 appear not to belong to anything in that part of the plan. It is 

 true there are other ovals in the design ; but there is not one of 

 them that has any proper connection with the parts near it. 

 " Square lines," Lancastriensis observes, " ought not to be ad- 

 mitted," because " they show at once the work of art, and that 

 the ' line and rule' have been applied." Would Lancastriensis 



