CHAPTER XIII. 



GARDENESQUE STYLE OF FLOWER-GARDENS. 



§ 1. — THEIR GENERAL ARRANGEMENT. 



The gardenesque style may be consi- 

 dered as partly picturesque and partly geo- 

 metrical, inasmuch as the surface may be 

 diversified — either level or slightly hilly 

 — the trees and shrubs partly exotic and 

 partly indigenous, but planted and grown 

 as distinct subjects, neither crowded into 

 dense masses nor placed in direct lines. 

 The forms of clumps and parterres may be 

 both regular and irregular, and the more 

 permanent decorations may be composed 

 of architectural and sculptural objects. 



The gardenesque style is represented by 

 fig. 899, which is on a lawn laid out with 

 trees and shrubs in vertical profile. The 



Fig. 899. 



walks are serpentine, or gracefully curved. 

 The beds in this instance are circular, a 

 form which has been considered by some 

 artists as all that is necessary in this style 



of garden, and, by graduating their sizes 

 according to the magnitude of the sphere, 

 producing that pictorial 'beauty aimed at 

 in it. Much as we admire circular figures, 

 judiciously arranged, in the composition 

 of a subject, still we do not hold that no 

 other figures should be indulged in. Cir- 

 cular figures of themselves, by reason 

 of their entering well into composition 

 either with themselves or with scattered 

 trees and shrubs, will produce a very per- 

 fect garden, as in the figure now referred 

 to. Other figures will produce an equally 

 perfect whole, if judiciously arranged with 

 trees and shrubs in another garden, or in 

 another sphere. 



In the present subject a terrace is in- 

 troduced, separating the lawn immedi- 

 ately in front of the house from the rest of 

 the grounds, and thus far blending the 

 architectural style with the gardenesque, 

 this terrace having its accompanying or- 

 naments of vases, &c, placed on the top 

 of the parapet- wall, which, if the grounds 

 slope much from the house, need show 

 little more than a plinth 12 inches in 

 height on the side next the mansion. 

 Its height on the other side must of course 

 be regulated by the extent of declivity. 

 If the house be on a level with the rest of 

 the grounds, then the terrace must be 

 separated from it, not by a dead wall, 

 which would shut the garden out from 

 being seen from the windows, but by a 

 parapet of open work from the plinth to 

 the coping. 



This terrace must be in breadth in pro- 

 portion to its length, the size of the house, 

 &c, and be occupied with a broad and 

 spacious gravel walk, with a parterre bor- 

 der between it and the terrace wall, but 

 of a breadth not to exceed half of that of 



