VH.] SHRUBBERIES. 229 



315. But grass is another great ornament, an^, perhaps, if 

 kept in neat order, the greatest of all. If grass be about to be 

 laid down, the ground should be well prepared : if too poor to 

 keep the grass fresh through a hot summer, it should be made 

 richer, and always deeply moved. The next thing is to keep 

 the ground, whether on the sides of terraces, on a slope, or on a 

 level, perfectly smooth and even on the surface. To sow grass is 

 not the way to have line grass plats ; but to cut the turf from a 

 common or from some verv ancient and closely-pressed pasture 

 where the herbage is fine. From our finest Downs, or from spots 

 in our Commons, the turf is generally taken ; and, short grass, as 

 the gardeners call it, is seen in perfection, I believe, nowhere but 

 in England. The old Duke of Orleans, showing Sir Frederick 

 Eden his gardens at Chantilly, coming to a grass-plat, said. 

 Here is something that you will like, at any rate ; and then 

 he told him that the turf of which the plat was form.ed 

 was actually imported from England, and cut upon Epsom 

 Down. The grass, cut with a turfing-iron made for the purpose, 

 is rolled up, just like a piece of cloth, green-sward inwards, 

 the strips are cut by a line : and cut into pieces of from tw o 

 to four feet long. These are laid down in the fall of the year 

 on the place where they are to grow : they are place -i and pressed 

 up very closely together, being well beaten down with the back of 

 the spade as the workman proceeds ; and when the whole is laid, 

 a roller of iron or of stone, of sufficient weight, is passed over the 

 plat. During the next winter, care must be taken to roll again 

 when the ground is in a dry state, after every frost. In the month 

 of April, it will be necessary to begin to mow ; for the grass will 

 grow very well. Grass-plats are the greatest beauties of pleasure 

 grounds if well managed ; but, unless you be resolved not to spare 

 the necessary expense for this purpose ; if you think that you 

 cannot have the perseverance to prevent your plat from becoming 

 a sort of half meadow at certain times, the best way is not to 

 attempt the thing at all. During the month of May, grass must 

 be mowed once a week. From the first of June, to the middle 

 of July, and especially if the weather be wet, twice a week mav 

 be necessary ; or, one mowing and one swarding or poling, ar.d 

 sweeping. The mower can operate only in the dew : he must be 

 at his v> ork by day-light, and the grass nuist be swept up before it 

 be dry. It is the ge.ieral i>iacti('e to mow every Saturday morning, 



