200 THE PARKS AND GARDENS OF PARIS. [Chap. XIV. 



houses before which we see these formidable arrays would them- 

 selves seem to require much further embellishment from the hand 

 of the artist-architect. Indeed, if the cost of the stone and stucco 

 ornament lavished on the garden, in many cases, were spent on 

 its legitimate, object — the house, it could not fail to be a change 

 for the better, for architecture as well as gardening. The fact 

 is, the style is only worthy of serious adoption with us when the 

 ground favours it, as, to name an English example, at Shrubland. 

 There it is used, with a very pleasing effect, to lead from the house 

 down a steep bank to the pleasure-grounds below. 



Nothing can be more pernicious for gardens than the too- 

 popular notion that the right plan is to place a terraced garden 

 on the best front of the house, no matter what the nature of the 



Te7-ra-cotta Mania hi Garden^ Fortification Style: a Sketch in Suburbs of York, 

 Example of modern landscape-work, (Front the ' Field.') 



ground ; the fact being that, where the ground is level, a finer 

 effect results from allowing the turf to sweep up to the walk in 

 front of the house than from an elaborate terrace, as may be seen 

 on the north side of Holland House, and at Cambridge House, 

 and in such gardens as Oak Lodge, where there is a very narrow 

 terrace. There is, in many cases, need for a formal walk, raised 

 or otherwise, and, it may be, for a small terrace — points which 

 will be governed in each case by the position, and sometimes by 

 the house itself; but, where the ground, as in most English 

 gardens, is level, there is no occasion for more than a grassy 

 foreground, which leaves us free to adopt everywhere a purely 

 artistic and natural style of gardening. In level town-gardens, 

 where the excuse of formal surroundings is used to justify a 



