700 PICTURESQUE STYLE OF FLOWER-GARDENS. 



tion, also cut on grass, and surrounded 

 with a shrubbery and wire fence. 



In regard to the form of beds in the 

 picturesque style, if we except the circle 

 and oval, all other geometrical figures 

 should be excluded, as being less adapted 

 to this style than figures of an irregular 

 shape; and those terminating in obtuse 

 ends are to be preferred to such as termi- 

 nate acutely, as seen in some of those in 

 fig. 983. 



We need hardly remark that all figures 

 of an unnatural character should be ex- 

 cluded, such as the figures of fish, birds, 

 coats of arms, initials of names, &c. The 

 picturesque style is considered to be a 

 representation of nature, and therefore 

 all forms which do not partake of the 

 original are to be rejected, as unworthy 

 to be introduced. 



A clever writer in the " Quarterly Re- 

 view," in drawing a distinction between 

 the ancient and modern styles of laying 

 out gardens, observes : " If we have made 

 more of this matter than it deserves, we 

 care not, for our great object is to impress 

 upon our readers that this word ' pictur- 

 esque ' has been the ruin of our gardens. 

 Price himself never dreamed of applying 

 it, in its present usage, to the plot of 

 ground immediately surrounding the 

 house. His own words are all along in 

 favour of a formal and artificial character 

 there, in keeping with the mansion itself. 

 He might, indeed, have used the term 

 picturesque with reference to those splendid 

 terraces, arcades, and balconies of Italy, 

 with which we are familiar in the archi- 

 tectural pictures of Panini ; but he would 

 have shrunk with horror to have his 

 theory applied to justify the substitution 

 of tadpole, and leech, and comma, and 

 sausage designs, for the trim gardens of 

 symmetrical forms." 



Sir Walter Scott had no great affection 

 for what has been called the natural, 

 picturesque, or modern style, and would 

 even banish the term landscape garden- 

 ing from our vocabulary altogether, and 

 admit of some other term, which would 

 represent the laying out of park scenery, 

 which he considers as distinct from laying 

 out gardens as the things themselves are. 

 Sir Uvedale Price clearly recognises a 

 threefold division of the domain, which 

 we have already referred to — namely, the 

 architectural terrace and flower-garden, 



in direct connection with the house, where 

 he admits the formal style; the shrubbery 

 or pleasure-ground, a transition between 

 the flowers and the trees, "which he would 

 hand over," says the writer in the " Quar- 

 terly Review" already quoted, "to the na- 

 tural style of Brown and his school ; and, 

 thirdly, the park, which he considers the 

 proper domain of his own system. This 

 is a distinction which it would be well 

 for every proprietor to keep in view, not 

 for the sake of a monotonous adherence 

 to its divisions in every case, but in order 

 to remember that the tree, the shrub, 

 and the flower, though they be occasion- 

 ally mingled with effect, yet require a 

 separate treatment, and the application of 

 distinct principles where they are to be 

 exhibited each in its full perfection. Our 

 present subject of complaint is the en- 

 croachments which the natural and pic- 

 turesque styles have made upon the regu- 

 lar flower-garden. Manufactures of by- 

 lanes and lightning-struck cottages are 

 all very well in their own department, 

 but they must not be in the vicinity of 

 the house. We suppose that even Whate- 

 ley himself would admit that the steps 

 and threshold of the door must be sym- 

 metrical, and would probably allow a 

 straight pathway to be more appropriate, 

 and even more natural, than a winding one, 

 leading directly to the door of the house. 

 Once get a straight line, even the outline 

 of the building itself, and it then becomes 

 merely a matter of situation, or conveni- 

 ence, or taste, how far the straight lines 

 and right angles shall be extended ; and, 

 though nature must needs be removed a 

 few paces further into her proper retreat, 

 yet simplicity may still remain in regular 

 and systematical forms, as much as in 

 undulations and irregularities and mole- 

 hills under the very windows of the 

 drawing-room. Nothing, as Scott has 

 remarked, is so completely the child of 

 art as a garden. It is, indeed, in our 

 modern sense of the term, one of the last 

 refinements of civilised life. To attempt, 

 therefore, to disguise wholly its artificial 

 character, is as great folly as if men were 

 to make their houses resemble as much 

 as possible the rudeness of a natural 

 cavern. So much maukish sentimen- 

 tality had been talked about the natural 

 style, that even Price himself dared not 

 assert that a garden must be avowedly 



