660 GARDENESQUE STYLE OF FLOWER-GARDENS. 



ing reflection and consideration, as it is 

 an error of judgment to be met with in 

 most gardens. Reasons may easily be 

 created for a winding path, even on flat 

 surfaces, as by taking advantage of the 

 position of existing trees or shrubs, by 

 planting others, or by placing some artis- 

 tic object at the point where the change 

 of direction is required. On unequal 

 surfaces, inequalities may be heightened 

 or deepened, by digging a pit or throw- 

 ing up a fosse. When a winding walk 

 is to be bent to the right, the obstacle, 

 be it trees or shrubs, ought to be 

 chiefly conspicuous on the left hand, and 

 vice versa; and the same rule applies 

 to inequalities of surface. These latter, 

 however, should not be of so formidable 

 a character as in the case of the pic- 

 turesque arrangement. In the case of 

 walks proceeding in a straight line, how- 

 ever short that line may be, the surface 

 of the ground on both sides, and for some 

 feet in breadth, should be rendered per- 

 fectly level and smooth, excepting in the 

 case of terrace walks, where the verge on 

 one side should be level, the slope on the 

 other side rising gradually, in a regular 

 and uniform manner. The verge in such 

 cases should be broad, and the ground 

 declining from it in a uniform fall. Every 

 straight walk should have a terminating 

 object — either a temple, a seat, an alcove, 

 an arbour, a resting-place, or a cross para- 

 pet, over which some distant view, or 

 object of interest, is to be seen. Be the 

 terminating object what it may, it is 

 essential that it be seen the instant the 

 walk is entered upon, and be, as.it were, 

 an object to reach, to satisfy the mind 

 that the labour of walking is not in vain. 



In the case of winding walks, no such 

 objects are required, because every turn- 

 ing presents some fresh object to arrest 

 the eye and satisfy the mind, and lead it 

 on, as it were, to see what is beyond. 

 The same rule that has been given for 

 changing the directions of a walk by de- 

 viating from the straight line, applies also 

 to that where one walk joins or branches 

 off from another at a nearly right angle. 

 To show a cause for this deviation, ad- 

 vantage should be taken of some obstruc- 

 tion, such as a tree, shrubs, &c. ; or an 

 artificial reason must be created by placing 

 some specimen of art, a seat, a mound, 

 &c, to show that the walk co*uld proceed 



no farther in its original direction ; but, 

 to avoid the obstacle, has to be turned 

 aside. Another walk may branch off in 

 a different direction at such points rather 

 than elsewhere — the same apparent cause 

 opening a reason for both. The advocates 

 for the natural style of laying out grounds 

 say, that in tracing the direction of walks, 

 nature should be imitated, and they ad- 

 duce the track of sheep in pastures, or 

 wild animals on commons, as examples. 

 " But to imitate such walks," Mrs Loudon 

 very properly observes, "would be to 

 copy vulgar nature ; and therefore art 

 refines on those lines, by rendering them 

 more definite and elegant — in short, by 

 exhibiting in them a choice of form or 

 line for its own sake; because, of the 

 various lines, or parts of lines, found in 

 accidental footpaths, some must be more 

 agreeable to the eye than others, and it is 

 only these agreeable parts which are to 

 be imitated and combined in garden 

 scenery. All this is founded on the 

 recognition of a principle which is, or 

 ought to be, the foundation of all the fine 

 arts — viz., that nature is to be imitated, 

 not to be copied. To copy nature ex- 

 actly as she appears before us, is the pro- 

 vince of common art, and may be pleasing 

 to many minds ; but to minds of culture 

 and refinement, nature requires to be 

 copied in such a manner, or in such a 

 medium, as to show art. If this were not 

 the case, and if we were to copy footpaths 

 exactly, then we should, of course, not 

 gravel them, or define them by regular 

 edges." 



For remarks on planting in the garden- 

 esque style, vide article Planting with a 

 view to produce Effect, in Chap. Pre- 

 liminary Remarks on the Classifica- 

 tion of Styles. 



Plate XXXII. exhibits a garden in the 

 gardenesque style. The beds, it will be 

 observed, are all circles of greater or lesser 

 size : the former of these should be 

 planted with flowering and evergreen 

 shrubs only ; and if each bed be limited to 

 either different varieties of the same 

 species, or to different species of the same 

 genus, the effect will be enhanced. The 

 smaller beds should be in like manner 

 planted chiefly with flowering plants, 

 either of one species or variety, or with 

 the different species and varieties of the 

 same genus. In certain of the flower- 



