257 
FLOWER GARDENS AND THEIR ORNAMENTS. 
NO. I. 
The field of our labours is so extensive, and is so crowded with objects of 
interest because they are those of beauty, that we are often at a loss to choose 
which to take up and present to our readers. When^ however, we can fix on any 
one, which has been perhaps but slightly touched upon in our former numbers, we 
willingly seize the opportunity, and consider ourselves happy in having in our power 
to add another trait to the usefulness of our highly favoured magazine. 
On the present occasion, we introduce the first of a series of plans, and isome- 
trical views of those plans, together with appropriate ornaments for flower gardens ; 
and which were formerly so common in Italian and other countries on the continent 
of Europe. We are the more induced to this, because we consider that such forms 
of flower gardens as we shall, from time to time, take occasion to portray, may be 
adopted with good eff*ect, and with great propriety, in many gardens ; and particularly 
in town or suburban villas of limited extent. 
It is a principle in the art of gardening that where extent of surface is denied, 
the limited space should be made to embrace as much variety of forms and objects 
as is consistent with propriety and good taste. And as the designs we have in 
contemplation admit of endless configuration, we flatter ourselves that what we 
shall consider worthy of illustration may not be entirely void of interest to 
our readers. 
A few words may be necessary at the commencement, in treating on this par- 
ticular style of gardening, — a style which was at one period everywhere prevalent ; but 
which, except in a few ancient gardens, has been long abandoned. At the time when 
every species of art was held in much higher repute than any branch of simple nature ; 
— when artisans of every grade were employed in administering to the security, to 
the comforts, and to the embellishment of the abodes of man ; and when the 
interior of palaces owed so much of their magnificence to the fabrics of the loom, 
and the " storied " tapestries of the needle ; it was most natural for the gardener to 
imitate in the open air what was so much admired in the interior of the house. 
His materials for such imitation were abundantly furnished by nature; he had a 
verdant carpet of turf— flowers of all hues— and endless forms of plants, both regular 
and irregular, which he only had to arrange and dispose as skill or fancy prompted. 
In the execution of these truly artificial gardens, if natural regular forms of shrubs 
or trees were wanting, he made no scruple to trim them by clipping into the desired 
form. The whole indeed was a creation of art; every thing being disposed in 
regular order, and with symmetrical exactness, forming a receptacle for many of the 
most beautiful and humble growing plants ; trees and large shrubs being but 
sparingly admitted : its chief beauty consisting in the intricate forms of the com- 
partments, the various tints of the flowers, and the trim neatness with which the whole 
was always kept. 
This style of parterres was, in some degree, imposed on the proprietors of 
VOL. IV. NO. XLVII. L L 
