ON THE PROGRESS AND PRINCIPLES OP ORNAMENTAL GARDENING. 123 



Suppose the situation to possess the advantage of such a substratum of stone, 

 a fine piece of what is commonly called " rock-work" might be formed by 

 excavating and blasting, which, when partially covered by beautiful creeping 

 plants allowed to run nearly wild, would produce a far different effect to the 

 pottering and unmeaning piles of heterogeneous materials studded over with 

 sea-shells, spars, bones, and other matter, usually the component parts of a piece 

 of " rock-work. 1 ' Rock-work of this description is so unnatural, that it must, 

 to a cultivated taste, be absolutely distasteful and disgusting. In some parts of the 

 country masses of rock are natural features, which have been taken the greatest 

 advantage of in forming a rocky scene such as I have recommended ; and I could 

 mention more than one place in the neighbourhood of Tunbridge Wells and at 

 the Undercliff in the Isle of Wight, where beautiful effects have been produced 

 with their aid. But in places where none such exist, I would follow the mode 

 adopted at the Botanic Garden at Manchester, where is one of the best managed 

 imitations I have seen, and of which I extract a short account from a journal kept 

 during a recent visit to that place. " Here is also a rocky walk, which is 

 one of the best imitations of a natural scene that I have yet met with : the stones, 

 all of the same description, which is absolutely necessary to give unity and a 

 probability of effect, are piled together in the most natural manner, and here and 

 there cemented with invisible stucco, so as to form large solid masses, such as could 

 not have been removed entire ; for all the stone was brought from a distance of 

 forty miles. The whole has been allowed to become partially covered, just as 

 accident willed, by ivy, and other creeping plants, and the effect now produced is 

 that of a romantic rocky valley, very like wild nature itself. A stream is also 

 managed on one side ; but they have not been able to get slope enough to give the 

 current sufficient activity to make it attractive." Such is the style of rock-work 

 I would recommend, and which, remedying the defect alluded to, might be adopted 

 in the present instance ; and I conclude this portion of the subject with a protest 

 against the piles of heterogeneous rubbish usually called rock- work. 



Returning for a brief space, we must proceed to the back of the house, where 

 I will suggest a few ideas upon the situation of the flower-garden. In this instance 

 I would not, as in the former one of a place on a smaller scale, contract the 

 arrangements by a low wall or any such feature ; on the contrary, I would let the 

 lawns and shrubberies sweep away to a considerable distance in undulating and 

 irregular variety, relieved occasionally, near the house, by a few masses of large 

 showy flowers, planted in front of the trees, but on no account in detached patches. 

 To the right and left, near the house, I would, connected with the main building, 

 construct an ornamental arch of stone or stucco, either of a highly wrought 

 character, and finished with statuary, or, of a more rustic style, to be partially 

 covered with ornamental creepers. A straight walk through a well-trimmed 

 shrubbery should conduct on one side to the flower-garden, and on the other to 

 the conservatories, &c. &c. ; and the preparatory features of the arch, and straight- 



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