494- Notices of some Gardens and Country Seats. 



so as to resemble nature, and even to be mistaken for it, which 

 is in a low style of art, yet it is clear the artist knew what he 

 was doing, and that he intended to represent the state of sculp- 

 ture at the particular period to which he had adapted the building, 

 a period when even representations of the human countenance in 

 marble were coloured to resemble nature. 



The conservatory at Mamhead is much too small for the 

 situation ; but, considering the house as a villa, it is, perhaps, 

 not altogether out of proportion. Part of the roof is opaque, 

 which we were surprised at ; because that part is completely 

 concealed by the parapet, and the light would have been of 

 essential importance to the plants. 



There are upper and lower terraces ; but the latter is not, in 

 our opinion, sufficiently separated from the park by architectural 

 parapets and other forms to justify the introduction of flowers on 

 it. The fortification-like character is also, we think, too con- 

 spicuous in some parts, and the lines of slope and surface of 

 glacis are, in others, disproportionately large for the height of 

 the house. There is a flower-garden in a sunk piinel, very judi- 

 ciously designed and laid out; but it is planted with shrubs and 

 other articles growing to the height of 3 or 4 feet, which prevent 

 the shapes of the beds from being seen in a birds-eye view, so 

 as to form a whole. Instead of this, the beds should have been 

 planted with articles which do not rise above the height of 6 

 or 8 inches ; or with roses having their shoots pegged down on 

 green moss, so as not much to exceed that height. As an ap- 

 pendage to such a house, this garden ought to have been in 

 much higher keeping : but perfect high keeping, in Devonshire, 

 we have only seen at Luscombe and at Endsleigh. The terrace 

 walks at Mamhead are not yet united with the pleasure-ground, 

 which, indeed, remains to be formed ; and a finer situation for 

 forming a pleasure-ground walk very rarely occurs. We took 

 the dimensions of two or three immense Lucombe oaks and cork 

 trees, which we need not here repeat, because they are much the 

 same as those given of the same trees in our Arboretum, as 

 measured in 1837. The dimensions now taken were, for want 

 of time, not made with sufficient accuracy to be useful in showing 

 the increase of the trees since that period. The kitchen-garden 

 is at a distance from the house, very unfavourably situated in a 

 hollow; but, notwithstanding this, we have seldom seen walls 

 more beautifully covered with fruit trees, especially with peaches 

 and nectarines; the borders are not cropped. 



(Tb be continued.^) 



