Part I. 



WHAT TO AVOID. 



75 



Fig. 48. — Fountain and rock- 

 work. (After Loudon.) 



to delineate all the mountains of a continent. A few hundred 

 yards in length or even a single nook of many an alpine valley 

 is often sufficient to impress the traveller with wonder and awe. 

 We cannot therefore help admiring the boldness of those who 

 even try their hand at a solitary alp. 



The next illustration shows a rockwork and fountain in what 

 we may call the true mixed Style — huge shells, " cascades," and 

 " rockwork." How any such object can be 

 conceived to be in any sense ornamental 

 is not easily explained, but it has been 

 extracted as a model from a work of au- 

 thority. In the fulness of time, no doubt, 

 such abominations will be suppressed by 

 act of parliament ; but as many foolish 

 persons will continue to erect them in 

 the mean time, let us beg of them not in 

 any way to associate them with alpine 

 flowers. Even if it were possible to in- 

 duce these to luxuriate on such objects 



as Fig. 48, they would merely serve to spoil the unity of the 

 design. 



Our next figure shows a truly laudable attack upon monotony. 

 The tall stones are to the smaller ones as the Lombardy poplar 

 is to his round-headed brothers of 

 the grove. The front margin of this 

 graceful scene consists of two rows 

 of prostrate and one row of erect 

 clinkers, and is much less irregular 

 and more hideous than the engraver 

 has had the heart to make it. The 

 back wall is of a very common type, and precisely of that texture 

 on which alpine plants will not exist. This cut is not extracted 

 from the great books of Loudon or of Macintosh ; it is a 

 comparatively recent improvement, and was sketched during 

 the past summer in a botanic garden not one hundred miles 

 from London. 



Fig. 50, after Mrs. Loudon, while not so repulsive as some 

 of the others, shows in its elevated nodding head the tendency 

 to make such arrangements conspicuously offensive by raising 

 them too high proportionately, and by so placing the stones 

 that the rain cannot nourish the plants. Like the arches, 



Fig. 49. 

 ' Infandi scopuli."- 



•(After — .) 



