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THE PRACTICAL GARDENER. 



woods, cottages, or the like, will always be pleasing ; shorter 

 walks should also be contrived on which to return (as most 

 objects lose effect when seen over and over) as well as for a 

 more convenient mode of reaching the more distant parts of 

 the grounds. Neat resting-places should be placed in different 

 parts, choosing the situation of some in shaded groves, others 

 upon elevated spots, conunanding the finest views of the 

 grounds or surrounding country. Much taste may be dis- 

 played in the formation of such seats, from the polished temple 

 of Flora, Venus, &c., to the rude roots of trees and misshapen 

 fragments of rock or rude stone. Arbours of living trees of 

 flexible habits, such as mountain-ash, willow, ash, &c., may be 

 planted and formed into bowers, and covered over with creep- 

 ing-plants, such as Clemalis, ivy, honeysuckle, &c. Moss- 

 houses of various constructions ; root-houses ; Russian, Swed- 

 ish, Lapland, Scotch, and Swiss cottages, should be disposed of 

 in situations peculiarly adapted for them. Sometimes situations 

 are naturally to be found adapted for the one or the other ; in 

 such cases, the house should be chosen to suit the situation, 

 and this will always be found to have the happiest effect. 

 Where the situation has to be formed for either, much judg- 

 ment and taste are required in the arrangement. This is not 

 sufficiently attended to. Thus, a Russian cottage, composed of 

 oak-timber trees, and the adjacent ground planted with laurel 

 and other polished shrubs, natives of southern latitudes, and 

 close-shaven grass lawns, is as preposterous as the chaste 

 Grecian temple in a rocky dingle. The grounds should be 

 chosen or arranged so as to persuade the observer that he 

 is really in Russia, and the house should be composed of the 

 same timber trees used in the formation of cottages in that 

 country, and be of the same form and size. The internal 

 construction and furniture should also come as near to reality 

 as possible. Hermitages and caves are also interesting, when 

 proper situations are chosen. In the former should be kept a 

 small collection of books calculated for private study, and the 

 furniture of this sequestered retreat should be exactly of that 

 simple and useful nature as would be suitable to a recluse. 



Caves should be hewn out of the solid rock, or if artificially 

 formed, should be cased over with rough stones, so as to give 



