204 



PARKS AND PLEASURE-GROUNDS. 



this union. In some cases, too, borders of flowers and 

 of ornamental plants enter into the combination, and 

 then they form what may be called mixed gardens. 

 These mixed gardens are certainly finer than mere 

 vegetable grounds, and they require a superior style 

 of keeping ; but when this system of combination is 

 carried so far as to supersede the flower-garden proper, 

 we think it greatly to be deprecated. In England the 

 mixed garden is of rarer occurrence than in Scotland. 

 In the latter country we not unfrequently meet with 

 extensive parks in which there is no separate flower- 

 garden, and where all the departments of both horti- 

 culture and floriculture are jumbled together with 

 much confusion. Undoubtedly a greater amount of 

 ornamental effect results, but considerably less expense 

 is incurred in keeping, when the last is wholly sepa- 

 rated, or when, at most, the fruit and kitchen-gardens 

 only are placed together. In the following remarks, 

 we shall not advert further to the mixed garden, but 

 shall confine our observations to those grounds which 

 are exclusively fitted and intended to yield a supply 

 of fruit and vegetables — a matter of no small impor- 

 tance to a family residing in the country. 



Site. — The primary consideration in reference to 

 these gardens is their site, and more particularly its 

 position in relation to the other parts of the park and 

 grounds. Their unpicturesque appearance is such as 

 to require that they should be screened, if not entirely 

 hid, from the main points of view in the surrounding 

 park, otherwise they prove detrimental to the general 

 scenery. Certainly they should not be visible from 

 the principal approach, nor from the windows of the 

 mansion-house. In ordinary circumstances it is not 



