ON THE PROGRESS AND PRINCIPLES OP ORNAMENTAL GARDENING. 



.59 



many pleasurable and innocent emotions each returning summer, is not likely 

 when once fairly engrafted ever to be eradicated ; and, at all events, as long as 

 the same circumstances which originated the taste continue, will the flower- 

 gardens of our villas and cottages continue the admiration of the European 

 traveller. 



This view is borne out by the circumstance that in other countries where coal 

 is common, and I instance the neighbourhood of Liege, in Belgium, gardening 

 taste is as prevalent as in England : the horticultural celebrity of the district of 

 Liege is well known. 



Having as clearly as I am able in so small a space noted down my hypothesis 

 respecting the origin of our nationality as gardeners, I will proceed, as I proposed, 

 to enumerate a few general maxims suggested to me by observation and experience 

 which ought to govern the planning and execution of ornamental gardens ; 

 premising at the same time, that I do not pretend to lay down any complete or 

 general system (for which purpose, studies for which I have no leisure would be 

 necessary), but only a few ideas upon such points as have been suggested to me in 

 my own limited sphere of observation. 



First then, a cottage built in the rustic style, thatched, or the general effect 

 of which is devoid of architectural pretensions — should be surrounded by a garden 

 of the landscape character, modified in its plan by the extent of ground occupied — 

 for to attempt rocks, lakes, cascades, and sometimes mountains, in a little back 

 garden — 



" Des cascades, et des montagnes, sur un arpent de terre," 



as De Lille * expresses it, produces a most vulgar effect ; and yet in spite of De 

 Lille's denunciation against crowding into a small space a number of paltry 

 imitations of the grandest objects in nature, such is still the general conception 

 in France of a u jar din Anglais.'''' Simon in his tour humorously describes an 

 advertisement account of a residence in the suburbs of Paris, which is 

 temptingly represented as possessing a "jardin Anglais, avec ses roches, son pont 

 rustique, et sa cascade.'''' 



These absurdities are above all things to be avoided ; and in surrounding a 

 rustic cottage, or one without any architectural pretensions, with an appropriate 

 pleasure- garden, I would observe the following general principles : — A broad 

 gravel walk should on two or three sides surround the building, following its own 

 outline : on the other side, the lawn might slope directly up to the windows of 

 the drawing-room or boudoir, opening to the ground ; and in this part of the 

 lawn, the flower-beds should be planned either in regular or irregular figures, 

 according to the taste of the possessor • but on no account to be decorated with 

 pedestals or vases, or anything of an architectural character. The walk to the 



* De Lille's poem Les Jar dins' 



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