186 On Laying out and Planting 



secondly, he is frightened at the thoughts of the hard laborious 

 work he will have. It is of no use for any man to think of 

 going to work in a market-garden, that has not made up his 

 mind to persevere and be industrious, and to make himself 

 generally useful ; no skulking about is ever suffered there. I 

 used to find it a difficult matter to procure a good lodging ; I 

 have paid more than one fourth of my weekly earnings for one, 

 and then had my cupboard sadly pillaged and robbed. 



The next subject I shall address you upon will be my method 

 of growing and forcing mushrooms; they spring out of the 

 earth so quickly, and they are a very useful vegetable indeed. 



Bicton Gardens, Oct. 31. 1842. 



Art. hi. On Laying out and Planting the Laivn, Shrubbery, and 

 Floxver- Garden. By the Conductor. 



The principles which serve to guide us in laying out the details of a place 

 are derived from its natural and artificial character, and the wants and wishes 

 of the proprietor. By natural character is to be understood the condition 

 of the situation in respect to climate, the kind of surface, the nature of 

 the soil, subsoil, rock, and springs, ponds, rills, or other forms of water, or the 

 sea. By artificial character we mean the style of the architecture of the 

 house, the present state of the ground as far as art is concerned, and the 

 various topographical circumstances ; such as roads, trees, neighbouring 

 houses, cottages, villages, manufactories, &c. The wants and wishes of the 

 proprietor require to be attended to no less than the character of the gi-ound 

 and the locality. An important object, in the first place, is to ascertain the 

 extent to which he will go in regard to expense. Next his peculiar taste 

 and that of his family are to be studied, and, as far as practicable, accommo- 

 dated ; except in the case of what the artist considers bad taste. In this 

 case he must respectfully submit his reasons for what he proposes, and endea- 

 vour to argue the matter with his employer. Should he fail in producing the 

 conviction desired, it will be a question for him to resolve how far he can, 

 consistently with his own reputation, sanction the production of what he con- 

 siders in bad taste ; at the same time carefully distinguishing between taste which 

 is inherently bad, and taste which is merely peculiar. For example, suppose an 

 employer wished to terminate a vista with a landscape painted on canvass ; or 

 to introduce, in a verdant scene, a flat surface of boards painted so as to resemble 

 a rock or a cottage ? This taste, except in the garden of a gidnguette, we 

 should consider as radically bad; and should respectfully protest against it in 

 the pleasure-grounds of a private gentleman. 



Bearing these data in view, there are three styles or systems of art, according 

 to which lawns and shrubberies may be laid out. The first of these is the geo- 

 metric style, characterised by lines which require to be drawn geometrically ; 

 that is, on paper by the aid of a rule or a pair of compasses, and on ground 

 by similar means ; the second is the picturesque style, characterised by that 

 irregularity in forms, lines, and general composition, which we see in natural 

 landscape ; and the third is the gardenesque style, characterised by distinctness 

 in the separate parts when closely examined, but, when viewed as a whole, 

 governed by the same general principles of composition as the picturesque 

 style, the parts, though not blended, being yet connected. 



The geometric style admits of several varieties, according to the prevailing 

 features. In one case architectural objects, such as stone terraces, steps, 

 parapets, stone edgings to beds, stone margins to basins, may be prevalent; 



