618 



GEOMETRICAL FLOWER-GARDENS. 



down close to the ground. The two 

 parapet-walls to be thinly covered with 

 ornamental plants, but not in any way 

 to take from their architectural character. 

 The climate being exceedingly mild, 

 fuchsias, the newer globularias, hydran- 

 geas, ceanothus, and similar half-hardy 

 plants, may be planted, and the bor- 

 ders between the walls and the walks be 

 sown with mignonette, with abundance of 

 tuberous and bulbous spring and autum- 

 nal flowering-plants permanently estab- 

 lished in it. 



The object of the above mode of 

 arrangement is to produce those pleasing 

 effects, which masses of beautiful and 

 decided colours are capable of displaying, 

 and which the same amount of colour, 

 indiscriminately scattered over the sur- 

 face, must ever fail in producing. Another 

 object to be attained is, that this garden 

 may be in perfection from the first of 

 August until destroyed by the autumn 

 frosts, as at that period only the pro- 

 prietor occupies this residence. 



The geometrical flower-garden and its 

 connection with the mansion are shown 

 on Plate XXIX., which is an isometri- 

 cal view of Nuthill House, the residence 

 of 0. Tyndall Bruce, Esq., Fifeshire. 

 The design for the mansion was given by 

 Messrs Burn and Bryce, and is an excel- 

 lent specimen of a style in which these 

 eminent architects greatly excel. The 

 design and arrangement of the surround- 

 ing grounds and flower-garden were com- 

 mitted to M. Rous, an Italian architect 

 and landscape-gardener of rising emi- 

 nence. The situation is somewhat ele- 

 vated, standing in a park of considerable 

 extent, well wooded, and sufficiently un- 

 dulated, but possessing no features of 

 grandeur or of age, the whole being com- 

 paratively of modern creation — the origi- 

 nal residence of the family being Falk- 

 land Palace, in the immediate vicinity. 

 The antiquarian associations within view 

 are, however, of great interest — namely, 

 the ancient palace of Falkland, often oc- 

 cupied by the Scottish kings up to the 

 time of James VI. as a hunting-seat ; and 

 the East Lomond hill, and Mearlsford, 

 near its base, with their ancient British 

 fortifications, supposed, by Colonel Miller 

 and other antiquarians, to have been the 

 site of the celebrated battle of Mons Gram- 

 pius, the exact site of which has puzzled 



antiquarians as much as the birthplace 

 of Homer. The entrance to the mansion 

 is on the north front ; the other three, or 

 principal fronts, are surrounded, as will 

 be seen by our Plate, by the flower-gar- 

 den, arranged in the geometrical style — 

 constituting, as it were, a base upon 

 which the beautiful structure stands, 

 uniting the forms of surrounding nature 

 with the more regular and uniform out- 

 lines of the building. On the east front, 

 beyond the boundary of the parterres, 

 the ground falls rapidly ; and although 

 enclosed upon this side by a substantial 

 retaining-wall, the parapet, being of very 

 elegant balustrading, divided into com- 

 partments by square piers, finished with 

 well-proportioned vases, only rises about 

 2 feet above the ground-level within — 

 thus securing ample protection, without 

 intercepting the view of the well-arranged 

 park scenery beyond, even when viewed 

 from the ground-floor windows of the house. 



The parterre on this side is chaste and 

 unpretending in its arrangement, being 

 surrounded by a broad gravel-walk, and 

 intersected at the centre, where a very 

 elegant fountain of stone is placed. Along 

 the inner margins of this walk are placed 

 longitudinal flower-beds, separated into 

 parts by circular ones, with two larger 

 figures cut out on the grass lawn which 

 forms the centre and greater part of this 

 compartment. These beds are planted in 

 the grouping manner, and have a very 

 good effect, on account of their not being 

 crowded together, and the plants being 

 kept closely pegged down to the ground. 

 On the western front the design is in one 

 compartment, as the space here is only 

 about half the length of the last, an 

 area or sunk garden occupying the re- 

 mainder of the length of this front, and 

 which is separated from the upper part 

 by a highly ornamental low parapet-wall, 

 in which is placed a flight of steps, to 

 connect the two parts together. This 

 lower garden may be regarded as a private 

 parterre, as it is immediately in front of 

 those apartments occupied chiefly by the 

 family. Against the wall which bounds 

 the northern side of this lower garden it 

 is proposed to erect a handsome conserva- 

 tory and aviary in connection with Mrs 

 Brace's boudoir, w T hich, when carried into 

 effect, will render Nuthill a very perfect 

 specimen of a private gentleman's resi- 



