Flower-Baskets, and Basketwork Edgings. 271 



Art. X. Remarks on Flower-Baskets, and the Construction of 

 Basketwork Edgings in Flower-Gardens. By N. M. T. 



As the votaries of Flora are now about to fill their baskets with 

 her choicest productions, perhaps the following remarks may- 

 afford, to some, a hint upon the subject. About the propriety 

 of introducing baskets, or edgings of basketwork, into the land- 

 scape, "doctors disagree"; but it is enough for the present 

 purpose to say that, when judiciously managed, I think them 

 desirable ; not altogether on account of the variety they create, 

 or their ornamental character, but also for their real or fancied 

 usefulness: it is this that causes them so generally to harmonise 

 with our notions of propriety ; the objects they protect being so 

 utterly helpless that they demand a seeming protection, even on 

 the placid bosom of an English lawn. Much taste is no doubt re- 

 quisite to produce a good effect, as it is necessary that they should 

 be suited to place and circumstances, to avoid outraging the real 

 or assumed character the scene may possess; and, even all this 

 guarded against, it is also necessary to " suit the basket to the 

 flowers, and the flowers to the basket," and this with the baskets 

 generally in use is no easy task. They, so far as regards dimen- 

 sions, are definite ; the objects they surround subject to endless 

 mutation : so that, at one time, instead of a basket of flowers, 

 we have only flowers in a basket, and, at a more advanced stage, 

 an overgrown disproportioned mass. Therefore, after all that 

 has been urged against them, unattached materials are best 

 suited to most purposes, as they may be contracted or expanded 

 at pleasure ; may be continued to form one basket, or divided 

 into half a dozen. When properly placed, they are equally 

 good-looking with those of the ordinary construction and more 

 durable ; and, perhaps, their greatest recommendation is the 

 small space they occupy when not in use. 



Being so far preferable, the next concern is to know how 

 fitting materials may be procured at least expense. It is true 

 that there are cast-iron edgings, of different patterns, in use for 

 such purposes, but they are easily displaced (an objection that 

 does not apply to those about to be recommended), and look 

 bad when in that condition, and, besides, are so clumsy, that 

 they have more the air of a prison-house than of an elegant sup- 

 port. It is scarcely possible to conceive anything more unpleas- 

 ing than a gracile flower peeping through a grating strono- 

 enough for a fence against cattle ; the fairest flowers of creation 

 through the bars of a nunnery perhaps excepted. A stake, to 

 appear appropriate, ought neither to be so slender as to seem 

 bending beneath its burden, nor so clumsy as to make the object 

 it supports more dependent than it really is : upon this prin- 

 ciple I would construct edgings of basketwork ; and common 



