300 Gardening Visit to Paris, 



beauty arising from plain unornamented parts of the grounds, as 

 contrasted with highly enriched parts, is destroyed. 



It may be asked if this mode of placing plants in pots round 

 the roots of trees, and in the margins of masses, would be in 

 better taste when applied to grounds laid out in the geometrical 

 style than to those in the natural style. To this we answer no ; 

 because it is not the style alone which renders them objectionable, 

 but the nature of the plants. It is the incongruous association 

 of the natives of opposite climates which is so offensive ; and it is 

 also the placing of plants in a natural-looking situation which yet 

 is not true to nature. By this we mean placing them at the roots 

 of trees, under the shade of their branches ; which, to a certain 

 extent, appears a natural position, because we know that plants 

 grow on the ground, and often near or under trees ; but then 

 we know, also, that they never could thrive so well under the 

 shade of trees, as those which we see placed there in this and 

 other French gardens. Plants placed in vases on the tops of 

 houses, it may be said, are in a still more unnatural situation. 

 Granted ; but in placing them in that situation there is no in- 

 tention to deceive. We know at once that they have been 

 raised elsewhere; that they have been placed there by the 

 gardener, and that the situation is such, that, to keep the plants 

 alive and healthy, his constant attention is requisite. 



One great object in laying out and managing a country seat 

 in England is, to produce and maintain an appearance of quiet 

 and seclusion ; but the continual recurrence of forced flowers in 

 pots, and the number of sanded paths seen at one time in most 

 of the suburban villas of Paris, remind one of the town more 

 than of the country. Even the raking of the gravel or the sand 

 of the walks, so common in France and also in Scotland, has a 

 bad effect with reference to seclusion ; and, in our opinion, ought 

 no more to be permitted than the paring of the grass verges, so 

 common in England. In the farm and the kitchen-garden all 

 may be bustle and activity, for these are requisite to the carrying 

 on of cultivation : but in the flower-garden and the pleasure- 

 ground all ought to be quiet and solitude; for by these means 

 only can that contrast be produced to a town residence, which 

 is calculated to insure the repose sought by a citizen in the 

 country ; or, at all events, which will be sought by him who has 

 a just sense of the kind of enjoyments which ought to be found 

 in every suburban villa. 



After all, perhaps, we shall not easily persuade the majority of 

 our readers that it is possible to have too many flowers in their 

 gardens ; and therefore we shall merely put our objections to 

 the display so common in what are reckoned the best Paris 

 gardens to the account of our particular taste. We could em- 

 ploy at Surenne legitimately all the flowers which we saw there ; 



