8G ON GENERAL APPEARANCES. 



The characteristics of a pleasure-ground should be elegance, va- 

 riety and harmony ; by judicious contrasts in the distribution of 

 flower-beds, shrubs and plantations, with other tasteful and appro- 

 priate decorations. The flower-garden is an indispensable appendage 

 to the pleasure-ground, where the gems of nature are to expand in 

 all their variegated charms of form and hue. The splendour of their 

 blooms should not be visible from distant parts of the ground : the 

 minutiae of their beauties demands a nearer view, to note their 



" Infinite numbers, delicacies, smells. 

 With hues on hues expression cannot paint, 

 The breath of Nature, and her endless bloom." 



The character of the park should be grandeur, — presenting rich and 

 extensive views, ornamented with well grouped plantations, which 

 must be accommodated to the line of surface that nature has fur- 

 nished ; and, to form a picturesque effect, the arrangement of objects 

 should wear an easy irregularity in their outline, a lightness and 

 airiness should pervade those in the foreground, and rude masses 

 should be opened to give forms suited to the prevailing character of 

 the scene. Unless the beauty and grandeur which objects separately 

 possess appear to the observer, there is a faulty and injurious ar- 

 rangement, arising from not having had a clear perception of the 

 effect in the first instance. There must, necessarily, be considerable 

 difference in the style of laying out grounds, which must depend on, 

 or be adapted to, the extent or particular circumstances attached to 



