634 On Laying out and Planting 



Art. XII. On Laying out and Planting the Lawn, STiruhhery, and 

 Flower- Garden. By the Conductor. 



(^Continued from p. 552.) 



On reading over our preceding article on tiiis subject, we feel that we have 

 gone rather too far in condemning young gardeners as self-conceited. We 

 are sorry for this, because we do not wish to hurt the feelings of any person 

 or class of persons whatever, much less the feehngs of those to whom we 

 owe so much. The truth is, the passage was written at Southampton 

 while we were in a state of severe bodily suffering, and we had no oppor- 

 tunity of seeing a proof either of that article, or the article which follows it, 

 otherwise we should certainly have softened down the sentence. How- 

 ever, it is much better for young gardeners if they should be blamed more 

 than they deserve, rather than that they should be overpraised ; and they 

 may depend upon this, that there is a general impression among the employers 

 of gardeners, and also architects, land stewards, &c., that the young gardeners 

 who have not seen much of the world are apt to fancy themselves wiser than 

 they are. 



Mr. Ayres has said in an article that will be found in a subsequent page 

 (p. 636. ), that, before censuring gardeners, we ought to have censured landscape- 

 gardeners, many of whom, he says, are equally as ignorant of the true prin- 

 ciples of design as the working gardener. We fully acknowledge this, and 

 we have frequently been astonished be3'ond measure at the plans which some 

 of even the first nurserymen about London have sent out, and had executed, 

 for their suburban customers. The truth is, the great majority of the em- 

 ployers of landscape-gardeners look out for the person whose terms are the 

 lowest ; and, as they do not know good from bad in this art, they are contented 

 with what is done for them by a man who perhaps cannot give a reason for 

 any one thing that he does. It is not very likely that a man who has been 

 brought up to the nursery business can ever have the leisure and repose 

 necessary to cultivate a knowledge of any of the arts of design and taste, 

 unless he have a natural turn for these pursuits ; and thence it frequently 

 happens, that the plans of nursery landscape-gardeners will be found mere 

 repetitions or imitations of what they have seen elsewhere. 



For some years past, a change has been gradually taking place, as country 

 gentlemen, in consequence of the general peace and their diminished incomes, 

 have been obliged to reside more on their estates, and to direct more at- 

 tention to improvements. Almost all the great families of the country, who 

 are not sunk in an abyss of debt, are doing something, either in the way 

 of building, landscape-gardening, or planting ; and though there are but a 

 small i)roportion of these who employ such architects as Barry, Blore, Salvin, 

 or Lamb, and such a landscape-gardener as Nesfield, yet there are a few ; and 

 the result, to the thinking and observant part of landed proprietors, will show 

 the inestimable value of good advice taken in time. 



As a proof that knowledge in the employers of gardeners leads to a demand 

 for those productions of which that knowledge has given them cognizance, 

 we may refer to the fact of the horticultural societies throughout the country, 

 and more especially those of London and Edinburgh. It will not be denied, 

 that, in consequence of the superior fruits exhibited at these societies, theii* 

 culture has been greatly improved throughout the whole country. 



A good deal may be effected in the details of landscape-gardening by in- 

 structing practical gardeners in such matters as grouping circles of flowers or 

 shrubs on lawns ; cultivating flowers, where the gardenesque style is adopted, 

 always in separate circles, or other forms of beds, from those which contain 

 the shrubs ; keeping the edgings of beds, borders, and walks, always in one 

 uniform state; keeping the walks properly filled with gravel, and the beds 

 and borders with soil ; turfing up beds and borders of shrubs where digging 

 is no longer of any use ; not to mention a number of other points of manage- 

 ment ; and to effect this improvement is the great object of this series of articles. 



