* 



PART VI. ORNAMENTAL GARDENING. 351 



in front of a mansion, must always have determinate outlines ; 

 because, being devoted chiefly to tender flowers and flowering 

 shrubs, they will always require to be cultivated. Their out- 

 lines may either be formed of elegant masonry, wood, basket- 

 work ; or flowers, as thrift, daisy, &c, or often a broad margin 

 of turf, when surrounded by gravel. The general form of these 

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

 ing to pleasure ; and their surface may either be kept level 

 with the lawn, or gradually raised from the margin to the 

 centre. But it may be observed, when raised in this way, that 

 the sides ought always to present a concave slope and not a 

 convex one, as they commonly do, and which has a very bad 

 effect in the public squares of London*. Basket groups often 

 have a very pretty effect when covered with moss, as may be 

 seen at Dalkeith. Others unconnected among themselves, and 

 of shapes rather unsuitable to the situation, may be seen at 

 Donnington. Though much has been said on the connexion of 

 groups in the preceding chapter, I must repeat that neither 

 those of irregular nor of regular shapes ought ever to be placed 

 but where they have a proper relation and union with what 

 surrounds them. 



* See some farther remarks by the author on this subject, in the Literary Jour- 

 nal for January 1804. 



