322 Benefits uohich Gardens 



The margins of basins of this sort can be effectually dis- 

 guised with rockwork, and this can be procured from the 

 nearest brick-field, stone-quarry, or, perhaps, from old houses, 

 which are taking down, chalk-pits, ferruginous gravel-pits, &c. 

 If suitable vitrified bricks cannot be procured, common bricks 

 may be joined together, in masses of any size and shape, by 

 cement; and there is no reason why blocks so formed, or any 

 other materials to be substituted for rockwork, should not re- 

 ceive weather stains artificially, no less than the walls of a house, 

 where the object is to imitate an ancient building. As to the 

 wooden cisterns, they will last long enough : and we know, from 

 experience, that it is cheaper, in the end, to form such cisterns of 

 wood, lined with lead, than to build cisterns of brickwork and 

 cement ; for, unless these are of considerable size, the cost is as 

 great as where lead is employed | and they are much more apt 

 to leak, and receive injury from frost. 



It is worthy of remark, that a good deal of the interest 

 attached to the groups on the lawn of the Lawrencian Villa de- 

 pends on the plants which are planted in the rockwork. Now, 

 though every one cannot procure American ferns, and other 

 plants of such rarity and beauty as are there displayed, yet 

 there are hundreds of alpines, and many British ferns, which may 

 be easily procured from botanic gardens, or by one botanist from 

 another; and, even if no perennials could be obtained suitable 

 for rockwork, there are the Californian annuals, which alone are 

 sufficient to clothe erections of this kind with great beauty and 

 variety of colouring. 



With regard to the statues, vases, &c., though some of these, 

 at Drayton Green, are of bronze, marble, or stone, and have 

 cost considerable sums, yet others of composition, equal in 

 point of taste, though far inferior in pecuniary value, may readily 

 be procured, at a moderate cost, of Austin's artificial stone, or 

 of earthenware. 



We are aware that there are many persons, of a simple and 

 severe taste, who will think that the Lawrencian Villa is too highly 

 ornamented with statues and sculptures ; but allowance must be 

 made for individual taste, for devotion to the subject, and for the 

 limited extent of the place. Were Mrs. Lawrence in possession 

 of a villa of 100 acres, there can be no doubt that she would 

 display on her lawn a taste as appropriate to a residence of 

 that extent, as the taste she has displayed at Drayton Green is 

 suitable for that place. 



Art. II. On the Benefits nxihich Gardens derive from Woodpeckers. 

 By Philopicus. 



I PRESENT myself, " by these presents," as an advocate in 

 behalf of a beautiful and useful, but an often persecuted, family 



