646 



GEOMETRICAL FLOWER-GARDENS. 



Fig. 872. 



to be of the same useful importance as 

 formerly, still, if elegant in design, as 

 those to which we have alluded are — or 

 like our example, fig. 869 — and if free 

 from such puerilities as are frequently 

 met with, they may, with much propriety, 

 be admitted into flower-gardens of the 

 highest order, either connected with ar- 

 chitecture, or placed at the termination of 

 long straight walks, or where these inter- 

 sect each other. In either case they may 

 be regarded as the silent monitors of the 

 flight of time, and we become, as it were, 

 attached to them. 



Mural decorations. — The mural decora- 

 tions of a garden are terraces, parapets, 

 vases, globu- 

 Fig. 871. i ar> ovate, tri- 



angular, and 

 other geome- 

 tric figures, 

 hewn in stone, 

 moulded in 

 clay or other 

 materials, and 

 burnt ; and 

 their principal 

 use is to unite 

 the house with 

 the grounds 

 surrounding 

 it. Rich archi- 

 tectural forms may be indulged in where 

 the mansion is of a high order ; indeed, 

 to be in keeping, they 

 must form, as it were, 

 part of it. For archi- 

 tectural villas, terraces 

 and parapets of less 

 costly erection and ma- 

 terial may be used. 

 Polished or droved ash- 

 lar is usually employed 

 for this purpose, and 

 such should certainly 

 be the case when the 

 mansion is of the same 

 material. Brick, brick 

 covered with various ce- 

 ments, and even fireclay 

 ware — such as that ma- 

 nufactured by the Garn- 

 kirk Company, of which 

 the annexed specimens, 

 figs. 871 to 875, are re- 

 presentations — may be 

 with safety and propriety used, especially 



for balustrading, which, 

 than a moulded material, 



Fig. 876. 



Fig. 877. 



Fig. 878. 



in any other 

 becomes so ex- 

 pensive as to 

 preclude the 

 use of this 

 kind of orna- 

 ment almost 

 entirely from 

 our gardens. 

 The artificial 

 stone of Aus- 

 tin of Lon- 

 don, figs. 876 

 to 880, Ran- 

 some and 

 Parsons, <kc, 

 answers the 

 same purpose. 

 An economi- 

 cal parapet 

 may be made 

 with common 

 brick and 

 large drain- 

 tiles, with 

 plain and 

 paving tiles 

 to make out 

 the coping, 



and coloured or covered with cement, 

 to suit the colour of the adjoining build- 

 Fig. 880. 



Fig. 879. 



ings. This has been employed with 

 good effect in a small Italian flower- 

 garden laid out for Lord Ernest Bruce, 

 in Marlborough Forest. On the top 

 of the wall forming the plinth is set a 

 course of bricks on edge, and on them 

 three courses of 9-inch drain-tiles, form- 

 ing the open part of the parapet. Over 

 them are two courses of paving-tiles, pro- 

 jecting 2 inches over the face, and 2 inches 

 thick ; then a course of brick on bed, the 

 top being finished with another course of 



