Book I. 



PRIVATE BRITISH GARDENS. 



1047 



7432. In all families there are iymalids at some time or other, and a great object is to 

 render the garden an alleviation to their sufferings. Some afflicted in the lower ex- 

 tremities can only walk on grass-walks ; others, from asthma, may not be able to stoop 

 to smell to or gather a rose or a gooseberry ; others may require to be carried round the 

 hot-houses in a chair, or wheeled along the walks reclining on a couch, and covered with 

 a glass case. Grass-walks, standard roses, and gooseberries, elevated pots of plants, hot- 

 house paths uninterrupted by pots, and gravel-walks smoothly rolled, art? obvious luxuries 

 for such persons. A sick horlicidturist, confined to his chamber, may derive some en- 

 joyment from having pots of plants brought before him for a few minutes, to show him 

 their progress ; and also by relations of what work is going on, and what articles are 

 vegetating in the garden. When life is under the pressure of disease, any object or 

 measure which can divert the attention for a moment affords relief ; for though night 

 cannot be turned into day without the presence of the sun, its darkness may be lessened 

 by a speck of the dimmest day-cloud. It does not often happen that residences are laid 

 out puqjosely for invalids ; but where this is the case, the designer ought to contrive 

 gently inclined planes instead of steps or stairs, and to avoid all corners in walks and 

 paths. Easy turnings in v/alks are also a great luxury to studious persons, who think as 

 they walk. For this reason, an author, if he can aflbrd any other garden than a pot of 

 mint, should surround his plot with an oval path, that he may walk on without end, and 

 without any sensible change in the position of his body. 



7433. IFIietlier a family is of retired or piMlc habits ought to be noticed by the gar- 

 dener. A retired family will derive most satisfaction from the useful products, and the 

 personal recreation they can take in their garden. A public or fashionable family, on 

 the contrary, from its beauty, high order, and keeping. Beautiful objects are formed to 

 be admired, that is their use, and what renders them so desirable, and their possessors 

 so much en\'ied ; therefore those who possess beautiful objects in order to derive the 

 enjoyment they are calculated to confer, must court applause by inviting such friends as 

 are likely to become admirers. Let no man shut himself up in the midst of beautiful 

 rural nature and think he will be perfectly happy, lest he should be forced with the satirist 

 to ask — 



" "WTiat is nature ? ring her changes round, 



Her three flat notes are water, plants, and ground." 



7434. To be condemned to pass an eternity in a pleasure-ground, would be perhaps as 

 dull as to pass it in a conventicle. Man is a social being, and never can reject the habits 

 to which this part of his nature gives rise with impunity. To be happy he must see and 

 be seen : it is the operation of this principle that has rendered the most beautiful seats of 

 the country show-places, or places which all the world are in\dted to come and admire, as 

 Blenheim, Mount Edgecumbe, Hackfall, &c. ; which induces others to publish accounts 

 of their seats, as Dr. Letsom of Grove Hill, the late T. Johnes, Esq. of Hafod, &c. ; 

 wliich leads the citizen to place his box or lodge, and the artisan or laborer his cottage or 

 cabin by the roadside ; and which, in short, impels the humblest individual to court 

 applause by making his powers, either of purse or mind, known to those around him. A 

 gardener, therefore, must attend to these general principles of our nature, and apply them 

 in his department as well as he can ; for much, it is evident, depends on his studying the 

 effect of the scenes under his charge, and keeping them in the most perfect order and 

 neatness for inspection. 



7435. Villas. (7278.) The grounds and gardens of this class of residences may occupy 

 from ten to a hundred acres, or upwards ; they are generally managed by a head gardener, 

 with one or more journeymen, and probably an apprentice, and with the occasional assist- 

 ance of men and women laborers. The kitclien and flower gardens of places of this sort 

 are generally good, and well furnished with hot-houses ; the shrubbery also is carefully 

 laid out, and planted with choice shrubs and trees ; and as the proprietor is generally an 

 opulent commercial man, he is liberal in his annual expenditure. The gardeners at such 

 places are generally well paid, no limits put to the dung, implements, structures, or 

 assistance they may want, and left more entirely to their own discretion than those in the 

 service of country-gentlemen. Their responsibility is, therefore, so much the greater, 

 and they are quite unpardonable if they do not excel in their art, and, above all things, 

 in keeping the whole scene under their charge in the utmost order and neatness. It fre- 

 quently happens, however, that soon after a gardener has got into such a situation, and 

 become familiarised with his garden, and the habits of his family, he begins to consider 

 liis place as a sinecure (^sine, adv. and cura ; i. e. without care), and instead of arduously 

 endeavoring that the productions of the current year shall surpass those of the year past ; 

 instead of adding more and more to the enjoyments of his employers, he begins to try 

 with how little they may be put off ; and the object of his ambition, which ought to be to 

 delight and astonish his family, is ultimately lowered to that of contenting them. This 

 sort of lethargic indifference, brought on by plenty and ease, is not peculiar to gardeners ; 

 it is a condition of our nature, which also furnishes checks to its increase after a certain 



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