Cullis's Nurseyy, Theobalds. 



587 



for the most part straight : but to a stranger there is no obvious leading 

 street or streets, and the houses are numbered in the common and inconvenient 

 manner, by which we mean that there is no fixed and understood end, such 

 as the east or the north, at which numeration should commence, and no 

 separation of the odd from the even numbers, as is now being done in London, 

 and as has been practised in France since the first revolution. There is much 

 municipal arrangement and regulation in Paris that would be of great benefit 

 to the public if adopted in English towns, and more especially in those which 

 are rapidly increasing, such as Leamington, Cheltenham, Brighton, &c. To 

 be convinced of this, it is only necessary to look into the Guide to Paris, and 

 the map of that city. 



Theobalds, near Walthani Cross ; G. H. Heppel, Esq. — Sept. 27. This is 

 a small place, but displaying on the lawn, on both sides o'f the house, exquisite 

 taste, and in the kitchen-garden most judicious and successful culture. The 

 house, which is an old cottage, was occupied for many years by W, Wingfield, 

 Esq., a master in chancery, and the grounds which were laid out by him do the 

 utmost credit to that gentleman as an amateur artist. The lawn consists of only 

 two narrow strips of ground, of about an acre each, on two opposite sides of 

 the house, and on these the taste and skill of Mr. Wingfield have been dis- 

 played in laying them out. In the one lawn, a broad open glade is preserved 

 down the centime, with a walk surrounding it concealed from the house by 

 shrubs, ti'ees, and small, raised, roundish, distinct beds of flowers which form, as 

 we pass them on the marginal walk, varied foregrounds to oblique views athwart 

 the lawn. In the strip of lawn on the opposite side of the house, there is a 

 straight gravel walk down the centre ; and the lawn on each side is covered 

 with beds of flowers, so as, in fact, to constitute this lawn one entire flower- 

 garden. The contrast between the two lawns thus treated, is striking and 

 delightful. The trees and shrubs which form the marginal foreground to the 

 first lawn are of rare and beautiful kinds, and they are admirably disposed, 

 advancing into the lawn and retiring to the walk, and even behind it into the 

 marginal plantation, so as to produce marked, but not formal, prominences and 

 recesses ; and, looking at these more in detail, we find an endless variety of 

 groups. The extremity of this lawn is bounded by a public road, and to 

 disguise this boundary it is ingeniously contrived to have two returning walks 

 at the end, one separated from the other by a narrow plantation of shrubs 

 and flowers, in consequence of which the immediate proximity of the boundary 

 is never once suspected by the spectator, who, seeing that there are two walks, 

 concludes that there is no want of room ; and, therefore, the idea of a 

 boundary in that quarter 

 never occurs to him. An 

 idea of the position of these 

 two walks is given in fig. 

 70., and the hint therefore, 

 we trust, will not be lost on 

 young landscape-gardeners. 

 In this lawn, breadth of 

 effect is preserved by no 

 beds being placed down the 

 centre, and the side scenes 

 are varied by the position 

 of the trees and shrubs, and 

 their different kinds produc- 

 ing different sizes, shapes, 

 and characters of foHage. 

 In the lawn on the oppo- 

 site front of the house the 

 side scenes are also varied 

 by trees and shrubs ; but breadth of effect has not been attempted, the lawn 

 being almost equally covered with beds throughout, and the central walk having 



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