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ROCKERIES, GROTTOES, AND CAVERNS. 
A small villa, for example, situated on a level tract of land in the vicinity of 
one of our large English towns, derives great interest from having a secluded nook, 
where the visitor can retire, as it were, into a rural or romantic dell, and seem 
almost shut away from the great world about him. 
But it is not to undiversified or highly-cultivated spots, or those in which the 
art of man is prominent, that the pleasure resulting from viewing rugged inequalities 
and rock-like groups is restricted. In the most romantic positions, nature may 
generally be improved or added to ; her beauties rendered more beautiful, her ap- 
parent deformities concealed ; and advantage may be taken of her capabilities, to 
rear structures and piles in which, while the ingenuity of man shall be perceptible, 
the outlines and materials shall be decidedly inartificial. 
It will be seen that we here refer to those assemblages, so varied in their forms, 
constituents, and objects, which bear the common names indicated in the title of 
this paper. That their legitimate province is sometimes overstepped, the limits to 
which they should be confined frequently exceeded, and the true principles of their 
composition very generally outraged, by persons fond of variety, or unacquainted 
with the rules of taste, are matters of too great notoriety, and of too common oc- 
currence, to admit of a doubt. It may be well to expose some of the prevailing 
departures from propriety on this head ; for errors in judgment, taste, or execution, 
cannot, unless known and perceived to be such, escape perpetuation. 
We do not intend to distinguish errors of the former kind from those of taste ; 
a refined taste, or perception of the beautiful and the appropriate, always resulting 
in some degree from the possession of a sound, discriminating, and well-cultivated 
judgment. The first deviation from tastefulness connected with the construction 
of rockeries and their concomitants which we shall now notice, is the placing them 
near a mansion, or any great work of art. 
Even in those localities where the scenery becomes gradually wilder and more 
savage the farther it recedes from a residence, and there is a regular and perfect 
progression from the artificial rockery to the mountains and glens around, nothing 
can compensate for the absence of that high state of cultivation, and congruous ar- 
rangement of parts to correspond with the style of the house, which should ever 
attend an architectural erection. A dwelling, of whatever description, is plainly 
and palpably a specimen of art ; and it is an established rule, that the space im- 
mediately around it should partake of the same character, merging only by slow 
degrees, and in proportion as it falls away from the central point, into the more 
natural features of the distant country or the neighbourhood. 
To bring, therefore, on a lawn contiguous to the house, piles of rocks which 
represent the most truly natural features in spots on which the hand of man has 
never been employed, or over which, perhaps, his foot has never trod, is, by eminence, 
entitled to be regarded as one of the most monstrous infringements on taste. Not 
only is it requisite, however, that the ground encompassing a mansion should be 
free from all the irregularities and vagaries which mark strictly natural scenery, but 
