592 



LAYING OUT FLOWER-GARDENS. 



are valuable for preserving tender plants 

 during winter, as well as for propagating 

 during early spring. Pits without heat, 

 but covered with glass, are indispensable 

 for a similar purpose, and even more so 

 for hardening off those propagated in 

 greater heat ; while pits covered with felt 

 or semi-transparent thin canvass, are also 

 indispensable for the purpose of still 

 farther hardening them off and rendering 

 them fit for final transplantation. A 

 great mistake often fallen into, and which 

 is frequently the result of the want of 

 sufficient accommodation, is the practice 

 of planting out flower-garden plants when 

 too small, imperfectly rooted, and also 

 when not sufficiently hardened to stand 

 the cold and evaporating winds of spring. 

 The most satisfactory mode is to bestow 

 sufficient pains on their culture under 

 glass, and to have the plants large pre- 

 vious to turning them out. This is to be 

 effected by frequent shifting and giving 

 abundance of room during their prepara- 

 tory growth, principles of culture by far 

 too much neglected. 



§ 9. — DISPOSAL OF THE GROUND. 



In former times, when the symmetri- 

 cal style of laying out ground was the 

 prevailing fashion, much expense and 

 #reat labour were incurred in reducing 

 the ground to the required levels, slopes, 

 &c. In the modern style this is much 

 less regarded ; indeed, undulation and 

 variety of surface are elements sought for, 

 and when not found to exist naturally 

 they are created artificially. Around the 

 mansion in the symmetrical style is found 

 the spacious terrace, of a length and 

 breadth proportionate to the building, 

 and forming, as it were, the base line on 

 which the structure stands, furnished 

 with its appropriate accessories, and unit- 

 ing the house and grounds so as to form 

 a perfect whole, the ground falling in 

 successive terraces, or upon a gentle and 

 uniform incline, until it unites with the 

 park or surrounding plantations. Gar- 

 dens so arranged cannot fail, viewed 

 from whatever point, to impress us with 

 the idea of finish and a union of parts. 

 " The eye, instead of witnessing the sud- 

 den termination of the architecture at the 

 base of the house, where the lawn com- 



mences as suddenly, will be at once struck 

 with the increased variety and richness 

 imparted to the whole scene by the addi- 

 tion of the architectural and garden deco- 

 rations. The mind is led gradually down 

 from the house, with its projecting 

 porch or piazzas, to the surrounding ter- 

 race crowned with its beautiful vases, and 

 from thence to the architectural flower- 

 garden, interspersed with similar orna- 

 ments. The various play of light af- 

 forded by these sculptured forms on the 

 terrace, the projections and recesses of 

 the parapet, with here and there some 

 climbing plants luxuriantly en wreathing 

 it, throwing out the mural objects in 

 greater relief, and connecting them plea- 

 santly with the verdant turf beneath ; the 

 still further rambling off of vases, &c, 

 into the brilliant flower-garden, which, 

 through these ornaments, maintains an 

 avowed connection with the architecture 

 of the house — all this, we think cannot 

 be denied, forms a rich setting to the 

 architecture, and unites agreeably the 

 forms of surrounding nature with the 

 more regular and uniform outlines of the 

 building. The effect will not be less 

 pleasing if viewed from another point — 

 viz., the terrace, or from the apartments 

 of the house itself. From either of these 

 points the various objects enumerated 

 will form a rich foreground to the plea- 

 sure-grounds or park, a matter which 

 painters well know how to imitate, as a 

 landscape is incomplete and unsatisfac- 

 tory to them, however beautiful the 

 middle and distant points, unless there are 

 some stroDgiy marked objects in the 

 foreground. " — D owning. 



In fine, the intervention of these ele- 

 gant accompaniments to our houses pre- 

 vents us, as the late Mr Hope observes 

 in "Essay on Ornamental Gardening," 

 " from launching at once from the 

 threshold of the symmetrical mansion, in 

 the most abrupt manner, into a scene 

 wholly composed of the most unsymme- 

 trical and desultory forms of mere nature, 

 which are totally out of character with 

 the mansion, whatever may be its style 

 of architecture and finishiDg." 



It is, however, in connection with man- 

 sions or villas of a somewhat superior 

 style that the decorated terrace can be 

 brought into this close approximation ; 

 but the terrace itself, in so far as it is 



