696 



PICTURESQUE STYLE OF FLOWER-GARDENS. 



in the works of all the painters. On the 

 top of the coping, urns, vases, &c, of 

 every shape and size, find their place. 

 Vines, jessamines, and other beautiful 

 and fragrant climbing plants, might add 

 their loose festoons to those imitated in 

 sculpture, turning round and between 

 the balustrades, clustering on the top, 

 and varying the height of the wall in 

 every style and degree that the painter 

 might direct ; and vases of elegant forms, 

 as well as the plants contained in them, 

 would add to the general richness and 

 variety." 



Upon the introduction of the natural, 

 English, or picturesque style into our 

 gardens, a complete crusade was begun 

 against every object or work of art met 

 with in grounds. This was going too 

 far ; but happily a better taste has 

 sprung up, and we find the intermediate 

 space surrounding the house now laid 

 down in a style corresponding with the 

 architecture of the building and with its 

 usual accompaniments of artificial deco- 

 ration. 



The rough and trivial forms in this 

 style admit of decorations peculiar to 

 themselves, except in so far as they are 

 at times admitted into the gardenesque 

 style ; and these decorations are, for the 

 most part, of a rustic character. The 

 highly-enriched classic vase, fountain, and 

 temple, give place here to the rustic vase, 

 cascade, and moss-house ; and the archi- 

 tectural bridge and highly-carved garden 

 seat to the rustic bridge and moss-covered 

 resting-place, often formed from the 

 stump of a tree, or of a combination of 

 the most crooked and misshapen of its 

 branches. Instead of the architectural 

 walls surrounding the geometrical flower- 

 garden, wire fences are here required, and 

 the fewer of them there are the better will 

 the garden represent the freedom of nature. 

 Trellised fences of unbarked trees should 

 be used, although wire fences of the 

 plainest forms may not be excluded ; but 

 both should be carried in natural wind- 

 ings through the outskirts, so as to be as 

 little seen as possible. 



The wire fence is by no means an 

 invention of our own. The Chinese have 

 employed it as an invisible or hidden 

 fence for ages ; and, instead of using 

 posts of wood or iron uprights wherewith 

 to fasten the wires to, they secure theirs 



to trees, shrubs, &c, and carry them in 

 the most irregular lines possible, so as 

 completely to hide them from view. 



As the expense of forming and after- 

 wards keeping up a garden in the rough 

 and trivial picturesque styles is, for its 

 extent, much less than that for a geome- 

 trical one, it may be, and ought to be, upon 

 a much larger scale. The picturesque 

 garden, therefore, may be extended 

 through a great part of a park, if that 

 park possess sufficient natural beauties. 



Walks may be extended in all direc- 

 tions, but leading to the most interesting 

 points. Near to the principal walks, 

 after quitting the lawn immediately sur- 

 rounding the house, may be introduced a 

 rosery, a heathery, a rockery ; and, as 

 we recede farther from the house, collec- 

 tions of ferns in groups, of grasses, and 

 of interesting genera of shrubs, both ever- 

 green and flowering, of native species, 

 which, although few in number, are 

 pretty extensive in varieties, as the yew 

 and holly exemplify. 



The Chinese, who appear to have had 

 for ages a right conception of winding 

 walks, thus reason : " There are few 

 things more variously entertaining than 

 a winding 'road,' which, opening gra- 

 dually to the sight, discovers at every 

 step a new arrangement ; and although, 

 in itself, it has not the power of raising 

 powerful emotions, yet, by bringing the 

 passenger suddenly and unexpectedly to 

 great or uncommon things, it occasions 

 strong impressions of surprise and asto- 

 nishment, which are more forcibly felt 

 as being more opposite to the tranquil 

 pleasure enjoyed in the confined parts of 

 the road; and, in small compositions, 

 they find crooked directions exceedingly 

 useful to the planter, who, by winding his 

 walks, may give an idea of great extent, 

 notwithstanding the narrowness of his 

 limits. 



" In disposing the walks of their gar- 

 dens, the Chinese artists are very attentive 

 to lead them successively to all the prin- 

 cipal buildings, fine prospects, and other 

 interesting parts of the composition — 

 that the passenger may be conducted 

 insensibly, as it were by accident, and 

 without turning back, or seeming to go 

 out of the way, to every object deserving- 

 notice. 



" The Chinese gardeners very seldom 



