648 



GEOMETRICAL FLOWER-GARDENS. 



the palace or the ancient castle to the 

 plainest and simplest dwelling-house, so 

 different styles of architectural, or at 

 least of artificial accompaniments, might, 

 though more sparingly, be made use of in 

 those lower degrees, without having our 

 gardens reduced to mere grass and shrubs. 

 Those near decorations, in every different 

 style and degree, and their application, 

 ought certainly to be studied by orna- 

 mental gardeners, as well as the more 

 distant pleasure-grounds, and still more 

 distant landscape, of the place." 



§ 4. — STATUES. 



Statues, like fountains, and for pre- 

 cisely the same reasons, have long been 

 slightly regarded in this country. In- 

 deed, a taste for sculpture in the decora- 

 tion of private gardens appears scarcely 

 now to be recognised. Why so important 

 a department of the fine arts should be 

 thus disregarded, whilst others are so 

 ardently cultivated, is passing strange. 

 Statuary and sculpture formed the leading 

 features of those rich and classic gardens 

 of antiquity, of which scarcely even now 

 the remains are left. Both were indica- 

 tive of a luxurious age and a high state of 

 refinement in society. At no period does 

 it appear that either, in their highest 

 state of perfection, were introduced into 

 our gardens ; and this is probably partly 

 owing to the poor imitations of them in 

 lead, with which our older gardens were 

 often stored, the want of native artists, 

 and the cost of procuring genuine speci- 

 mens from the chisels of Italy — where, 

 notwithstanding the darkness which has 

 long covered that once enlightened land, 

 sculpture, as if it were a genius inse- 

 parable from her cloudless sky, lingers. 

 That those castings in lead, which for 

 two centuries were thought graceful orna- 

 ments to our gardens, should have given 

 a distaste for their continuance, is natural ; 

 but why, now that architectural palaces 

 are rearing up their heads in every corner 

 of the land, and Italian architecture cul- 

 tivated to a greater extent than heretofore, 

 should those adjuncts, so essential in 

 carrying out the entire design, (the gar- 

 dens, and their accompaniments — sculp- 

 ture and statuary,) be so much neglected 1 

 Better, indeed, have none, than vile mis- 



representations ; but although we are 

 not, with all our presumed wealth and 

 refined taste, either rich enough or pos- 

 sessed of sufficient taste to procure, or even 

 attempt to procure, such works of art 

 from the first masters, either of our own 

 or any other country, in sufficient num- 

 bers to produce great effects, still the want 

 of encouragement to native talent pre- 

 vents the genius of Britons from directing 

 its energies to an art to which there is 

 so little encouragement given. 



It has been stated that the marbles of 

 Italy are unsuitable to our humid climate. 

 If such be really so, let us take the next 

 alternative, and have recourse to castings 

 in iron, and afterwards to mouldings in 

 the plastic art. Though our gardens 

 may be richer in floral furnishing and in 

 elegance of design, still there is a want 

 to the completion of a perfect whole, and 

 that want is statuary and sculptural 

 ornament. 



It has been considered by some pre- 

 tended connoisseurs to be ridiculous to 

 place imitations of human beings on posts 

 and pedestals, in the open air, and exposed 

 to all weathers ; and others, affecting an 

 extreme modesty, object to statuary alto- 

 gether, unless clothed with more than 

 with a fig-leaf. Our answer to the first ob- 

 jection is, that it would be still more ridi- 

 culous to place them only in warm rooms. 

 Statues are to be considered as works of 

 art amongst other works of art, which 

 gardens assuredly are ; and there seems 

 no reasonable objection to placing them 

 anywhere, amongst other artistic works of 

 the same kind, such as architecture — an 

 art the productions of which have been in^ 

 all ages closely associated with sculpture. 

 To the second objection we may answer, 

 " Honi soit qui mal y pense." 



Whenever architectural ornaments are 

 introduced in a garden, we see no objec- 

 tion to introduce, in association with 

 them, statues and other sculptural 

 articles, if the subjects are sufficiently 

 good, and in a material capable of stand- 

 ing our climate. There are few things 

 in the way of garden ornaments which 

 we are more desirous of seeing introduced 

 than statues of cast-iron, and those cast 

 in one piece, which now can be coated 

 with several of the more valuable metals, 

 and thereby resist oxidation — one of the 

 former objections to them. We have 



