138 
ROCKERIES, GROTTOES, AND CAVERNS. 
scribe small gardens in which there are no trees to conceal them, or that are raised 
on an eminence to bring them within the range of vision, are only the more offensive 
the more natural they are made, and the more highly tended is the intermediate 
space. 
Advancing yet further in our exposure of prevalent faults, we come to one which 
is probably not so gross as those already depicted, though it derives increased force, 
and is more likely to be followed, from its exceeding commonness. It is that of 
letting any of the objects referred to in this paper be visible from other parts of 
the garden, particularly from distant positions. By thoroughly isolating these 
things, they may be introduced to the most limited gardens ; while in the largest, 
if not duly retired, they will never have a good effect. To feel their full influence, 
the spectator should come upon them unexpectedly out of a rich or agreeable 
portion of the pleasure-grounds ; and when he has left them, pass again to some scene 
in which trees, shrubs, and flowers are abundant, without being able to discover 
more than the direction in which the spot he has quitted lies. 
Seclusion is indispensable for rockeries, on two grounds. First, the beholder 
requires to be near to them in order to detect their several beauties ; as the extent, 
and proportions, and shape, will be too indistinct and petty to be attractive, with a 
spacious foreground between. Second, they will not mix and combine harmoniously 
with the other features of a pleasure-garden ; but have the greatest interest as 
detached groups, complete in themselves, and neither lending a charm to anything 
around, nor borrowing from aught their own peculiar attraction, beyond the pre- 
paratory influence which the one and the other exercise on the mind of the 
inspector. 
From what has just been stated, it will, then, be obvious that a confined dell or 
hollow is by far the most proper situation for a rockery ; and we may now add that 
a grotto or a cavern ought ever to constitute a part of a general rockery, and not 
be erected in a detached state. A rockery may exist without a grotto, and yet be 
as ornamental ; though the erection of the latter without some rockwork to accom- 
pany it, cannot be recommended or approved. 
In places where a natural dell is to be found far enough from all the structures 
before alluded to, the materials can be taken to it in the requisite quantity ; its out- 
line being varied according to a prepared design prior to the commencement of any 
erection. Should no hollow of the kind naturally occur, it will have to be excavated. 
The site must by all means be below rather than above the general surface. Let 
the stones, pieces of rock, flints, roots, &c., be piled against the banks of this hollow, 
securing, however, a due variety by having them in some parts sloping, in others 
perpendicular, and in a few shelving outwards from the base. 
No subject in the gardening profession calls for a more vigorous exercise of skill 
and talent than the formation of rockeries and their appendages. It is here that 
the difference between those who have studied from nature, frequented her most 
savage territories, and drunk in with avidity their inspiring influence, — and such as 
