Village ofHarlaxton. 339 



wooden framework of most original construction, massive and 

 architectural; and so on. All the gardens are of course sepa- 

 rated from the street by a fence, and there are not two of these 

 fences in the village exactly alike. Some are hedges rising from 

 the inside of dwarf walls ; some are walls like those of sunk 

 fences, the garden in the inside being of the height of the top of 

 the wall, which is covered in some cases with a plain stone 

 coping, in others with a brick coping ; in some with a stone 

 coping in the Gothic manner, in others with an Elizabethan 

 coping ; in some with a parapet of openwork, in others with 

 stone or brick piers for supporting horizontal bars of wood for 

 creepers, as in Italy ; or without being connected by bars of wood, 

 but terminating in rough earthenware jars for flowers. Each front 

 wall must, of course, have a gateway to enter to the garden and 

 the cottage, and no two of these gateways throughout the village 

 are alike. Some are wickets between wooden posts, others Gothic 

 or Elizabethan gates between stone piers, square or round ; 

 some are close gates, in the manner of many in Switzerland, in 

 others the gates are under arches, some of which are pointed, 

 and others round-headed ; some have pediments over the arches, 

 others horizontal high-raised copings, as in the neighbourhood 

 of Naples ; and some have small wooden roofs or canopies after 

 the manner of the gateways to the country houses in the neigh- 

 bourhood of Dantzic. The gateways, in short, afford great 

 variety of character. Besides the front boundaries of the gar- 

 dens, there are the side boundaries, which are also varied, partly 

 in a similar manner, and partly differently. In some cases, the 

 boundary, though sufficiently well known to the occupants, does 

 not appear at all to the stranger ; in others it is of holly, of box, 

 of laurel, of thorn, of flowering shrubs, of fruit trees, or of a 

 mixture of several or all of these, with or without architectural 

 piers, bee-houses, arbours, covered seats, tool-sheds, or other 

 appendages. The gardens, it may be observed, are all laid out 

 differently. In some, the main walk from the street gate to the 

 porch is of flagstone, in others it is paved with small stones ; in 

 some with wood, in others with brick ; in some with gravel, and 

 in others with broken stone. It is edged with box, with thyme, 

 with ivy, with a broad belt of turf, with a raised edging of stone, 

 or with a flat belt of brick, and sometimes even with wood. The 

 gardens are variously planted, and in some there are very pro- 

 perly trees and shrubs clipped into artificial shapes ; two spruce 

 firs form very handsome balls. 



3. Never to employ two styles or mamiers of architecture in the 

 same cottage^ or at all events not to do this so frequently as to lead 

 a stranger to suppose that it has been done through ignorance. 

 We omit what may be said on the necessity of keeping the 

 recognised eras of the Gothic distinct, as well as the Eliza- 



