THE LAWN. 



775 



garden, in most cases, is on one or other of the 

 garden fronts of the house. This, in some re- 

 spects, depends iipon which front the principal 

 rooms look to. Where they open towards the 

 north, which is, however, not often the case, the 

 flower-garden may be placed there, because the 

 flowers, when looked upon, will have their faces, 

 as it were, turned in the direction of the house, 

 as all flowers turn towards the sun. When the 

 garden is placed on the south front, the backs 

 of the flowers are only to be seen ; and of course, 

 whether upon the east or west front, their side 

 view is only available, in all these cases produc- 

 ing a far less imposing effect than when viewed 

 from the southern front. These are points 

 which should be determined either before the 

 house is built, or before the site of the garden 

 is fixed upon. At all events, the flower-garden 

 should be descended to from the terrace, and 

 not only seen from it, but from the principal 

 windows also, for the enjoyment it affords, as 

 well as for the union it creates between the 

 house and the grounds. 



The next in order to the stone terrace is, 

 where a broad gravelly walk bordered with grass 

 surrounds two or more sides of the house. The 

 gravel, no doubt, affords a dry, and so far a com- 

 fortable promenade, but its pared edges are 

 meagre and formal. The inferiority of the 

 gravel walk in such a situation, according to the 

 views of Sir Uvedale Price, proceeds from other 

 circumstances besidesthoseof formality and want 

 of effect. " Its boundary," he remarks, " is not 

 only meagre as well as formal, but is incapable 

 of receiving any ornament, or of being varied 

 with any effect. The parapet, on the contrary, 

 admits of a great degree of ornament, and also, 

 what is very material, of a mixture of the light 

 and pliant forms of vegetation with the uniform 

 unbending substance of stone and the enrich- 

 ment of the sculpture. Should the solid wall 

 be thought too heavy, a balustrade, without 

 destroying the breadth, gives a play of light and 

 shadow of the most striking kind, which occurs 

 in the works of all the painters. On the top of 

 the coping, urns, vases, flower-pots, &c, of every 

 shape and size, find their place ; vines, jasmines, 

 and other beautiful and fragrant climbing plants, 

 might add their loose festoons to those imitated 

 in sculpture, twining round and between the 

 balusters, clustering on the top, and varying the 

 height of the wall in every style and degree 

 that the painter might direct." The effect of 

 the former is only somewhat improved by a 

 broad gravel-walk, with a still broader border 

 of scroll-work, either in box embroidery, or filled 

 with plants flowering at the same time, and har- 

 moniously arranged, with a gravel walk of nar- 

 rower dimensions between it and the terrace, 

 formed by a green sloping bank and grass margin 

 on top. But carry the principle farther, intro- 

 duce an open balustrade instead of the margin 

 of grass ; surmount it with vases or other sculp- 

 tured ornaments, arrange the flower-beds in 

 geometrical forms with raised margins of stone, 

 and if upon a sufficiently extensive scale, intro- 

 duce fountains and statuary and stone descents 

 from one terrace to another until the line of the 



natural ground be arrived at. If these terraces 

 extend to only two, an upper and a lower one, 

 of proportionable length and breadth according 

 to the magnitude of the mansion, the effect will 

 be more pleasing than were they carried farther 

 out, increasing in number, and decreasing in size 

 and importance. All terraces should extend 

 the whole length of the mansion, and only when 

 they cannot well be united with the side 

 grounds should they extend much farther. In 

 such cases they may be made to return along 

 the other sides of the house, rising or falling in 

 level according to circumstances. Nor should 

 they terminate abruptly, especially when the 

 ground beyond falls considerably; and hence 

 the importance of flights of steps at their ends, 

 leading the visitor from one terrace to another, 

 and obviating the unpleasant necessity of retrac- 

 ing his steps. An abrupt termination — where 

 the ground falls suddenly — may often be reme- 

 died by placing an alcove at the end ; but even 

 here, steps leading to the next terrace, either 

 above or below, become necessary, so that the 

 continuation may not be interrupted. At the 

 ends, again, where the ground rises, such stairs, 

 instead of being placed on the side of the ter- 

 race-walk, may be placed in front of it, indicat- 

 ing to the visitor as he approaches it that there 

 are means for his proceeding farther. 



The lawn, according to the present meaning 

 of the word, implies greater or lesser breadths 

 of grass, extending, as they often do in large 

 domains, to ten, twenty, fifty, or more acres of 

 ground, kept shaven and shorn by the scythe or 

 machine, and at an expense which would be far 

 better disbursed in the higher keeping of par- 

 terres in immediate proximity with the mansion. 

 In smaller places a similar wasteful expenditure 

 takes place, while the effect produced is little 

 better than if the operation of keeping*down 

 the grass were intrusted to the sheep and the 

 deer. Yet we are told by the advocates of 

 modern landscape-gardening that these closely 

 shaven lawns are natural, and in accordance 

 with picturesque beauty — the object they pro- 

 fess to imitate. By carrying them up to the 

 very threshold of the door of the house, they 

 usurp the province of artistic gardening, and sub- 

 stitute for the highest grade of external decora- 

 tion those imitations which, in good taste, 

 should only be employed in connecting, as it 

 were imperceptibly, art with nature, at a greater 

 distance from the house. Beyond the line we 

 have drawn the lawn should commence. Its 

 keeping and arrangement, as regards planting, 

 levelling, &c, should be more attended to near 

 the house than at a greater distance from it, 

 because it should in these respects become lost, 

 as it were, in the park or plantations ; and also 

 because it should form the foreground of the 

 piece, while the park should form the middle, 

 and the distant country the extremity of the 

 picture. There are cases, however, where the 

 whole of these must be confined to the lawn 

 and park ; such, for instance, as where disagree- 

 able objects might be in sight, which it would 

 be judicious to exclude, and also in exposed 

 situations, where shelter is an object. The size 



