SHRUBBERY. 



plants, for the purpofe of ornament. The term is, how- 

 ever, perhaps the moft properly applied to narrow belts and 

 ftrips of ground, planted with (hrubs and flowers, which are 

 fometimes the principal ornaments of fmall feats, and other 

 fimilar conltruftions and conveniencies. They are contrived 

 in different forms and modes, for the purpofe of friving the 

 defired effeft ; and the notion of fuch fchemes of planting 

 (hrubs and flowers is confidered by Mr. Loudon as good and 

 proper, as when executed according to the principles of 

 nature and good talle, they muft produce effeifts of the in- 

 terefting as well as the pleafing kind ; but that from the 

 reverfe having been fo frequently the cafe, their tawdry in- 

 fipidity has been juftly reprobated by fome, as Mr. Knight, 

 in the following line, &c. 



" Curfe on the fiirubbery'i infipid fcenes." 



It is fuppofed that fhrubberies are, in general, made and 

 contrived with the intention of procuring walks, which may 

 either conduft or direft to fome particular place or fcene, 

 fuch as the kitchen garden, the farm, a wood, or any other 

 fimilar objeft ; or they may lead and extend merely through 

 the flirubberies, for their own fakes, and fuch views of ex- 

 ternal objefts as can be produced from them, or as are de- 

 ferving of attention. In defigning and forming flirubberies, 

 therefore, keeping the above in view, thefe three points 

 will, it is thought, require to be particularly attended to : 

 firft, the arrangement, diftribution, and grouping of the 

 (hrubs, which ought to be that of general nature ; in the 

 fecond, the intermixing of the glades and paftures, which, 

 in molt cafes, is an eflentially requifite confideration ; and 

 in the third or laft, the judicious introduAion of the views 

 of the more diftant fcenery, which is generally defirable, 

 unlefs in fuch parts as, by way of utility or contrail, are 

 preferved in a ftate of umbrofity. 



The two latter requifites are, it is faid, naturally con- 

 nefted with piclurefque improvements, the general prin- 

 ciples of which are blended and intermixed with this branch 

 of ornamental gardening. 



The direftions which this able defigner of rural works of 

 this nature has given for the formmg of flirjbberies with 

 proper tafte, in different cafes, fituations, and circumltances, 

 are, that when fuch groups of (hrubs and flower plants are 

 fmall and placed upon lawns, they fliould always be of very 

 irregular fhapes ; but that, when upon gravel, their forms 

 muil depend upon circumltances. In cafes where they are in 

 a part in which art is avowed and ought to prevail, then the 

 more artificial the forms are, fo much the better ; but that 

 if merely a group for feparating, dividing, or varying a 

 road, walk, or natural path at a diftance from artificial 

 fcenes, then the fliape fliould be as irregular as in thofe upon 

 lawns. Whether fuch flirubbery groups arc made in a 

 regular or irregular manner, they almoft in every cafe re- 

 quire to be cultivated or wrought over for fome years after- 

 wards. This, in the mode of digging and working them 

 which has been ufually had rccourfe to, produces, it is faid, 

 a harlh and difagreeable boundary line ; which, in addition 

 to the means of proper arrangement, fuitable grouping, and 

 the natural connexion of fnrfacc, may be improved princi- 

 pally, it is fuppofed, by the dellruftion of fuch lines of 

 reparation in as complete a manner, as high a degree, and as 

 extenfively as poflible. Nothing, it is thought, can be more 

 readily or more eafily accompliflied, as it is only requifite to 

 keep the earth on the margins or borders of Inch groups of 

 the fame level as the furfaccs of the lawns orpallures, and 

 to fufTer both to unite and blend liarmoiiioiilly togetht-r, or 

 with eacii other. And as all groups of this fhrubbery kind 

 are only dug or wrought over during a certain period of 



time, as until the flirubs become fo large as to render fur- 

 ther culture unneceflary ; the pafture ftiould be allowed to 

 gradually encroach and fpread itfelf among the fhrubs and 

 flower plants, until at lad it wholly covers the furface. 

 After this, the flirubby group becomes rough and pic- 

 turefque ; the flower plants, ftill continuing to grow among 

 the flirubs, will, it is fuppofed, be produftive of exaftly 

 what is feen to happen in natural groups ; with this elegant 

 difference, that in place of nettles, thiitles, and fuch eoarfe 

 grofs weeds, which however, it is remarked, are as good to 

 the painter as the finelt flower plants, there will be had the 

 narciflus, faxifrage, faponaria, and others, which are quite 

 in charafter with the reft of the plcafure-ground, and thrive 

 well among pafture. It is fuggefted, that in planting the 

 flirubs in fuch groups, the great art confifts in putting them 

 in irregularly ; for though the outline of the ground to be 

 cultivated mufl;, even under the beft tafte, be fomewhat 

 formal, yet the (hrubs can always be planted as irregularly 

 as if no outline or form of group exifted. This is, how- 

 ever, faid to be a plan or manner of diftribution, which has 

 never been put in praftice ; as whatever the form of the 

 ground may be which is to be dug and planted, the flirubs 

 are diftributed in a regular mr.nner over every part of it : — 

 even when digging is no longer attended to, ftill none of the 

 (hrubs are thinned out, but the whole left a formal uncon- 

 nefted clump of vegetation, an appearance, it is obfcrved, 

 as different from the irregular group-thickets of nature, as 

 a green hillock is from a rocky precipice. It is ftated, 

 however, that the groups of this nature, or rather thofe 

 maffes of formal (hapes which are placed in particular 

 fituations, fuch as ovals in the fronts of fmall villas, or 

 ba(ket-work patches upon the lawns in the fronts of refi- 

 dences of the manfion kind, (hould always have determinate 

 outlines ; as being devoted, in a great meafure, to tender 

 flower plants and flowering (hrubs, they will require to be 

 conftantly in a cultivated llate. Their outlines or boundaries 

 may, it is fuppofed, be properly formed, according to cir- 

 cumltances, either of elegant mafonry, wood, baflcet-work, 

 or of plants of the flower kind, fuch as thrift, the daify, 

 and fome others, and not unfrequently, wlien furroundcd 

 by gravel, by a broad margin of turf. In regard to the 

 general forms of fuch fhrubby planted madcs, it is faid that 

 they may be oval, circular, pentagonal, or fanciful, accord- 

 ing to pleafure ; and that their fiirfaces may either bo kept 

 level with the lawns or other parts, or be gradually raifed 

 from their margins to their centres. It is however noticed, 

 that when raifed in this way, the fides (hould always be made 

 to prefcnt a concave flope, and not that of a convex one, 

 a> is moll commonly the cafe, and which has a very bad 

 effeft in different inltances, as in tiie public fquares of the 

 metropolis. Sec. Bafket-work flirubby groups have not un- 

 frequently, it is remarked, a very pretty i-flett when covered 

 with mofs. Others which are unconneiled among thcm- 

 felvcs, and which have (hapes that are rather unfuitable to 

 the nature of the fituations in which they are formed, are 

 likewife productive of variety. In all cafes, fome fort of 

 agreeable cfleA ought to be afforded in as Itriking a manner 

 as poflible. 



It is conclufivcly remarked, that though the conneftion 

 of furface in fucii flirubby groups is always of importance, 

 neither thole of the irregular or regular (hapes ought ever 

 to be placed in any fituation, except where they have a 

 proper relation and union with what furrounds them. 



In the larger and more extenfivc works of tiie (hrubtxry 

 kind, the fame rules and princi[)lcR will be nccellary to be 

 had recourfe to, but witli a greater attention to the produc- 

 tion of variety and effeft. Thefe arc to bo accompliflied by 



fuch 



