GARDEN ARCHITECTURE. 
109 
want of symmetry, except from the front, the same irregularity of shape, the same 
flatness, heaviness, dulness, formality. Even when relieved by domes or other 
central and terminal elevations, they are merely interesting from a single point of 
view ; and though so much modified as to take the form of a crescent or semicircle, 
the spots from which they can be admired are not multiplied by the alteration, 
agreeable as it is in itself. 
Passing to those houses in which a particular architectural style is actually made 
use of, and to which, by consequence, many of the preceding objections are inap- 
plicable, for superficial symmetry is more or less a component of every recognized 
mode of building, and strikingly so of the Grecian or semi-Grecian orders, which 
are mainly employed in garden architecture,— we have faults of another kind to 
disclose. Primarily, then, we protest against all such horticultural buildings when 
they bring into use brick or stone materials higher than a few feet above the level 
of the surrounding earth, inasmuch as they tend to subvert a law of which the ex- 
perience of all attests the accuracy, and on the preservation of the inviolability of 
which so much depends. — It is, that everything should be avoided that in any way 
intercepts the passage of light through the roof and sides ; and where the principal 
or supporting parts of a structure are of brick or stone, it is peculiarly difficult to 
keep these within due dimensions. 
We reiterate and confirm our opposition to such structures for another and 
equally cogent reason. They are utterly unsuitable, in point of taste, for housing 
any kind of ornamental plants ; their disproportionate strength, and the massiveness 
of their parts, being quite incongruous with the lightness, grace, and naturalness of 
the objects they protect. There is, in truth, too great an appearance of art, with a 
total want of that airiness, liveliness, and buoyancy which raise an image rather of 
an endeavour to enhance the attractions of the scene spread before us in the interior, 
than of a necessary screen to secure them from the inclemency of the weather. 
Hence, all plant-houses in which brick or stone are unsparingly employed, give a 
perpetual notion of the inhospitable nature of our climate, oppress the mind with a 
continual sense of pain for the safety of the plants, and keep up a constant recol- 
lection of that ungenial season when extra artificial shelter is absolutely indis- 
pensable to guard against frost. 
One exception only can ever be admitted to these strictures. Where it is the 
wish of the proprietor that a conservatory or orangery should form a department 
of the mansion, by all means let the style be in exact accordance with that which 
distinguishes the general building. In this case, there is no alternative. The 
conservatory must either be constructed in the same character as the house, or it 
must be perfectly detached. For the sake of the plants, however, it is much to 
be desired that erections of that sort should not become general. 
Other evils, of less importance than those previously spoken of, might here be 
portrayed ; but, as they do not involve such high principles, we shall content 
ourselves with merely enumerating a few. Thick sash bars and rafters are, when 
