122 



ON THE PROGRESS AND PRINCIPLES OF ORNAMENTAL GARDENING. 



pictorial effect from the windows of the house. At these points, too, plantations 

 should commence diverging right and left till arriving at the line of the lower 

 terrace-walk, which would consequently be much longer than the upper one. A 

 fine artificial perspective would be thus produced. The space of turf left open in 

 the centre should be sparingly diversified with a few groups of luxuriant orna- 

 mental shrubs, kept in sufficient order to produce the effect of careful cultivation 

 but not formality. 



The lake is supposed to sweep up against the wall of the lower terrace, which 

 I would make to terminate at each end with a pavilion, of bold design, from which 

 on one side a flight of steps should conduct to the lake, where a handsome landing- 

 place should be constructed ; and on the other, to a walk at first by the side of 

 the lake, but diverging to that portion of the grounds most carefully laid out in 

 the landscape and romantic character. At the foot of the stairs of the lower 

 terrace, the architectural features should terminate, as I consider those proposed 

 sufficient to frame the building and harmonise its features with the surrounding 

 scenery. 



Having descended the stairs from the lower terrace to the walk at the side of 

 •the lake, it will finish the arrangement for this part of the grounds before return- 

 ing to the house. First, then, the exterior portion of the plantations occasionally 

 approaching and bordering the lake should, particularly near the base of the 

 lower terrace, possess an admixture of handsome evergreen shrubs, and present 

 a general effect of cultivation sufficient , to harmonise it with the finest of the 

 ground above ; this feature, however, should gradually disappear as the terraces 

 are left at a greater distance, and eventually nature should apparently be left to 

 itself. Following the path by the side of the lake, I would soon make it plunge 

 into the depths of the plantations, which in their interior should assume as much 

 wildness of character as possible, and the path should be carried through the 

 most rugged parts, occasionally passing through the spur of an abrupt hill by a 

 tunnel, or be carried over a chasm by a viaduct, with its line of tall and slender 

 arches, but constructed of stone of a dark colour so as not to make a patch in the 

 scenery. Part of the Birmingham railway is a cutting through an immense 

 stratum of red sandstone, the blastings of which are left untrimmed, and the 

 passage through this rugged avenue of rock has in English travelling a novel and 

 beautiful effect. If the grounds of our imaginary villa contained a similar forma- 

 tion near the surface, a chasm might be formed in the same way, and it might be 

 traversed above as that of the Birmingham railway is, by a single skew arch. 

 The skew principle in such a situation gives a degree of wildness to the beauty of 

 the architecture, well in keeping with its rocky abutment, from which the arch 

 should spring at once, as in the instance I am quoting, and to which it should 

 appear cemented, as it were, by a bold and simple moulding ; and the arch being 

 of the same stone as the rock, would produce a beautiful mingling of art and 

 nature most agreeable to the eye. 



