426 Visits to Suburban Gardens. 



softness and smoothness of the lawn, and the finely raked earth of the beds, is 

 very effective; and in walking through among the beds, where these rocky pro- 

 tuberances occur, they form excellent foregrounds to what is beyond them. 



What we particularly admire about Teddington Grove is the situation of the 

 house. It is a square mass, completely isolated, without the appearance of offices 

 of any kind, and with nothing in it, or about it, not even a servant's window in the 

 basement which requires to be concealed. We could fancy it a temple in a 

 wood, from the absence of every thing like offices; and the certainty that these 

 are not there and concealed by trees, abstracts the vulgar part of the ideas 

 which generally arise on the view of a dwelling-house, whether large or small, 

 a palace or a cottage. The principal floor is 6 or 8 feet higher than the level 

 of the lawn ; and, in the centre of the lawn front, a portico projects from the 

 centre drawingroom window, and opens to a double flight of steps, which 

 adds to the temple-like effect, and seems to indicate the enjoyment which may 

 be had by descending to the lawn. All this effect depends on the form and 

 isolated position of the house, and not on its architecture, which is altogether 

 without pretension. The whole of the grounds seems so admirably adapted 

 to the house, that the idea never occurs for a moment that it would have been 

 better situated any where else. From every point of view it appears backed 

 by wood, and yet there is not a single tree on any side within 50 or 60 feet of 

 it. This contributes greatly to the healthiness of the house, by allowing the 

 sun to shine freely on every front, and also the free action of the winds, by 

 which the walls are kept dry without, and the rooms cheerful within. We 

 cannot bring ourselves to approve of the prevailing custom of covering part of 

 a house, and, at all events, the offices, with trees and bushes placed close to the 

 walls. We would show the whole pile of building, and have no tree or shrub 

 nearer any part even of the offices, than 20 or 30 feet, except, indeed, in very 

 small places. The fashion of covering up offices in the manner generally 

 practised does not appear to have originated in any principle of utility, but is 

 rather to be considered as a fashion introduced with the change of taste in 

 laying out grounds, which took place about the beginning of the last century, 

 and is continued by the custom which has prevailed since the time of Gilpin, 

 of considering the picturesque as the principal beauty to be studied in the 

 exterior of country houses, and in laying out the grounds around them. We 

 admit that, to a great extent, picturesque beauty is that which ought to be prin- 

 cipally studied; but we think that, in planting trees and shrubs about a house, 

 it is commonly too much so for health, and dignity of effect. The nice point 

 is, to conceal the offices of a dwelling-house without seeming to do so, and 

 without darkening any of the windows, or rendering any part of the building 

 damp, inconvenient, or unhealthy. It is chiefly in dry gravelly soils, that the 

 domestic offices can be concealed under ground, or contained in the body of 

 the building, as at Clermont and Teddington Grove, and the character of the 

 house thus ennobled, and raised to that of a temple. We use the word temple, 

 for want of some better term. A house with offices necessarily suggests the 

 idea of its being inhabited by ordinary mortals, who require fire and cookery ; 

 but a building, evidently a dwelling-house, and yet without visible offices, situ- 

 ated in garden scenery, suggests to us the idea of the inhabitants being some- 

 thing more than mortal, and living, perhaps, like our first parents, only to admire 

 the beauties of the garden. But these are fanciful hints, which some only 

 will be able to understand and apply properly. If we could once get rid of 

 our prejudices in favour of existing fashions, and let our reason have free 

 exercise, the planting out of offices, and concealing houses by trees so near as 

 to touch them, would not be given up entirely, because that would be nothing 

 more than to set up one fashion in order that it might put down another; 

 but it would be given up as a general and indiscriminate rule. 



Norbiton Hall; R. H. Jenkinson, Esq., F.H.S., §c. — This place has long 

 been celebrated on account of the number of new pelargoniums, C'istineae, 

 cactuses, and other plants, which have been raised by Mr. Jenkinson, and 

 figured in Sweet's Geraniacece,Cislinece, Flower-Garden, and the other botanical 



