BRIDGES. 



679 



Opinion seems to be at variance in re- 

 gard to the propriety of introducing bas- 

 ketwork edgings in flower-garden scenery. 

 For ourselves, we think them not only 

 ornamental, but highly useful ; and if 

 judiciously managed, they not only har- 

 monise with our notions of propriety, 

 but give a seeming protection to objects 

 utterly helpless. To produce a good effect, 

 however, much taste and judgment are 

 necessary in their arrangement, so as to 

 suit the place and circumstances, as well 

 as to suit the " basket to the flowers, and 

 the flowers to the basket." 



Fixed edgings, or baskets (if large) in 

 one piece, are objectionable, because at one 

 time they are too large, and at another 

 time as much too small, for the plants grow- 

 ing within them. Unattached materials, 

 therefore, like the specimens given, are best 

 for most purposes, as they can be readily 

 extended or contracted to suit 

 existing circumstances. 



Cast-iron and earthenware 

 edgings are of necessity in 

 . pieces. They can, therefore, be 

 removed or altered in position 

 as required. Slate and pave- 

 ment edgings being, from the 

 nature of the material, also 

 in pieces, can be easily removed, and may 

 be adapted to curvilinear lines as well as 

 to straight ones, as described p. 590, as 

 practised by Mr Beck of Isleworth. In the 

 multitude of wire, wicker, and cast-iron 

 patterns, no difficulty can exist as to find- 

 ing sufficient for any probable demand. 



§ 4. — BEIDGES. 



Few objects form a more interesting 

 feature in landscape than a bridge ; and 

 the more suitable the design to the 

 situation, and the plan to the purpose, 

 the more striking and pleasing is the effect 

 produced. Bridges are not only valu- 

 able as beautiful objects, but they are also 

 useful — nay, often indispensable — for con- 

 necting parts of the grounds separated 

 from other parts by brooks 

 and rivers — as is the case at 

 Dalkeith Park, for example, 

 through which the two rivers, 

 the North and the South Esk, 

 flow. There are also other cases 

 where grounds are separated 



by the intervention of roads, over which 

 it is desirable to pass, as is the case at 

 Pains Hill, in Surrey, and in the palace 

 grounds at Laeken, near Brussels, where, 

 on account of a public road separating the 

 old garden grounds from the new kitchen 

 garden, a bridge was found to be the only 

 eligible means of access. And in the 

 former case, a bridge spans the Ports- 

 mouth road at a considerable height. 



In such cases as the above, architec- 

 tural bridges should be employed ; at 

 least they should be so much so as to 

 remove them from the class usually em- 

 ployed in grounds when the space to be 

 spanned is little more than that of a 

 brook. 



Fig. 947 is intended for a foot-bridge, 

 of iron, to connect the lawn near Dalkeith 

 Palace with some grounds on the opposite 

 side of the North Esk. 



Fig. 947. 



Suspension bridges are well adapted, 

 not only for crossing rivers, but also for 

 connecting those parts of pleasure-grounds 

 that may be separated by deep gullies or 

 ravines. They are of two kinds — suspen- 

 sion wire bridges, and suspension chain 

 bridges. The former of these are the 

 simplest, and consequently the least ex- 

 pensive. As an instance of the economy 

 of wire bridges, we may state that there 

 was one of them thrown across the Gala 

 Water in Scotland, with a span of one 

 hundred and eleven feet, at a cost, it 

 is asserted, of only forty pounds. And 

 another was soon after constructed 

 over the Tweed — a much larger river — 

 the footway of which was four feet wide, 

 at a cost of one hundred pounds. The 

 annexed sketch, fig. 948, will show its 

 principle. It is sustained by wires radiat- 



Fig. 948 



