THEIR GENERAL ARRANGEMENT. 



659 



must have been laid out about the begin- 

 ning of the last century. We avail our- 

 selves of it to show that considerable pro- 

 gress had been made in the gardenesque 

 style even at that period. We may here 

 remark, because it should be considered a 

 general rule in this style, that the ground 

 between the shrubs in the oval borders, 

 in fig. 907, should be kept clear of weeds, 



Fig. 907. 



by fork-digging or hoeing; and that the 

 outline or boundary of them should be 

 definite, having the edges of the turf 

 regularly cut, but not so deep as to show 

 a harsh line : and this rule should be fol- 

 lowed in all cases wherever shrubberies 

 or plantations exist in such gardens, that 

 the forms of the beds, borders, and shrub- 

 beries may indicate, by the regularity of 

 their forms, as much as in the disposal 

 and management of the shrubs and 

 plants, that art and keeping are here to 

 be recognised ; while in the picturesque 

 style, that recognition is to be scarcely 

 appreciable. 



In this figure we have introduced a 

 bowling-green, a, a very old component 

 part of the gardenesque style. It enters 

 not into the Italian, or other strictly 

 geometrical garden, and appears, so far as 

 history informs us, to be only of modern 

 use in Britain — somewhat, however, older 

 than the date of the origin of the garden- 

 esque style. To landscape-gardening it 



adds nothing, only a circular, square, or 

 oblong piece of lawn, rendered as level as 

 possible, and sunk somewhat under the 

 general level of the surrounding grounds, 

 so as to present a small bank of turf, to 

 stop the progress of a strong bowl ; other- 

 wise, as dryness and nicety of level are 

 two essentials, we would have thought an 

 elevated position would have answered as 

 well. With bowling-greens 

 we quarrel not — they do not 

 interfere with the beauty of 

 a landscape ; with their use 

 we quarrel not, more than 

 with that of curling, quoiting, 

 or cricket. They afford exer- 

 cise to those who may require 

 it, and of a much more human- 

 ising and less demoralising 

 character than those which are 

 considered the more refined 

 amusements — viz., steeple- 

 chases, fox-hunting, and battue 

 shooting. We have also, 

 while keeping to a certain ex- 

 tent to circular clumps, intro- 

 duced elliptical ones, and, as 

 affording variety, have added 

 at b b two small gardens of 

 circular outline, but which are 

 to be subdivided into smaller 

 compartments, according to 

 the taste of the owner. 

 In regard to the planting, and arranging 

 the clumps, groups, and trees, as well as 

 indicating the lines of walks in such a 

 garden, the following hints may be studied 

 with practical advantage. It may be laid 

 down as a pretty general rule, that all 

 walks should be straight when there is no 

 obvious reason to the contrary. No per- 

 son would take a circuitous route to 

 reach an object, if that object could be 

 approached by following a direct line. 

 Hence, therefore, in the case of all wind- 

 ing walks, if there is not a natural, and 

 apparently unavoidable obstacle, as a rea- 

 son (such as a tree, a rock, a building, &c.) 

 for thus deviating from the straight line, 

 an artificial one ought to be created. To 

 twist a walk into a tortuous direction, 

 where no reason can be assigned for so 

 doing, is one of the many fallacies so often 

 displayed by the layers-out of many of 

 our modern gardens, and is nothing short 

 of an outrage against the principles of 

 correct taste. This is a subject deserv- 



