672 Select Suburban Residences. 



and these views always different, constitute the grand secret of 

 making a small place look large. 



The walks are filled to the brim with gravel, kept firmly 

 rolled, and their grass margins are dipt, but never cut; because 

 the gravel, being almost as high as the turf, the latter can never 

 sink down, and swell out over the former. This it invariably 

 does when the turf is a few inches higher than the gravel ; and, 

 hence, paring off the part of the turf which had projected 

 was originally, no doubt, adopted only as a remedy for the evil, 

 though it is now erroneously practised by gardeners as an 

 evidence of care and good keeping. As much of the beauty of 

 the walk depends upon the beauty of its boundary, the feeling 

 that this boundary is likely to be disturbed every time the walk 

 is cleaned, or the adjoining turf mown, is extremely disagreeable. 

 The freshly pared turf becomes a spot or a scar in the scene, 

 withdrawing the attention from the walk itself, and from the 

 adjoining grounds, to a point, or rather a line, which is in itself 

 of little consequence, but which, by the paring, is obtruded on 

 the eye, so as to destroy all allusion to stability. We are dis- 

 pleased with the paring of the edges, because it conveys the idea 

 that the walks are not finished, or that they are liable to be dis- 

 turbed in this way from time to time ; and nothing, either in 

 grounds or in buildings, is more unsatisfactory than an apparent 

 want of stability or fixedness. It is as much the nature of the 

 ground to be fixed and immovable, as it is of trees and shrubs 

 to increase in growth : and, hence, any operation, such as clip- 

 ping, which seems to stop the growth of the one, is as unsatis- 

 factory to the eye as paring, which seems to derange the fixed 

 state of the other. Would that we could impress this on the 

 minds of all gardeners and their employers ! 



The Pond is of an irregular shape, so arranged as with the 

 assistance of the island to prevent the whole of it, and conse- 

 quently its limited extent, from being seen from any one point in 

 the garden. For the same reason, the walk only goes along one 

 side, there being but one point on the western side, viz. where 

 the iron seats are close to the agaves, from which any part of the 

 pond can be seen. The pond is so situated as to form the main fea- 

 ture in the right-hand view from the drawingroom window, as 

 shown in fig. 156. in p. 636. ; the wooded island (which is shown 

 rather too much in the middle in the plan, though, perhaps, not 

 so in reality) disguising the boundary from that and every other 

 point of view. The bank of the pond on one side is rocky, and 

 nearly perpendicular; while on the other it is sloping, and partly 

 covered with shrubs. At h v&Jig. 165. in p. 657., there is a boat- 

 house, on the top of which are several large agaves, the common, 

 the variegated, and Agave plicatilis ; the tubs containing which 

 are so disguised by rock work, as to create an allusion to the 



