186 
GARDEN ARCHITECTURE. 
the ground, for some distance on all sides, be suitable (or capable of easily being 
made so) for flower-beds, and for plantations of shrubs and trees to enclose the 
whole. A word or two on each of these matters seems desirable. 
First, we assert that it is better to build a conservatory on a nearly level spot, 
because both a hollow and a bill are inconvenient and improper. A position in a 
low valley, or near running water or lakes, is unsuitable from its greater dampness 
and coldness ; and if the ground assume an actual concavity of surface, it is yet 
more inappropriate as contravening the universal ideas of fitness. A considerable 
eminence, again, will be too exposed to cold or violent winds ; there will be a diffi- 
culty in conveying to it what is requisite, and it will render the building disagree- 
ably prominent from various other parts of the garden. A plain, on the contrary, 
which is midway between a valley and a bill, offers the most eligible site ; and the 
house should be on a raised platform of earth, one or two feet above the ordinary 
level, in order to give it a more commanding aspect. 
That it utterly destroys the beauty of an erection, particularly of a garden one, 
to have it enclosed, on any side, by plain or even ornamented walls, must be obvious 
to every one who has noticed the subject. Fully as we are of opinion that con- 
servatories should be secluded amidst flower-plots and lawns from the rest of the 
garden, we would rather see them exposed than confined by artificial objects. And 
here we must state that the main improvement we advocate in the form of such 
structures, is their being constructed according to the plan invariably pursued with 
dwellings of any pretensions : that is, as the latter are exposed to view on all sides, 
and are made of the same materials and with the same care in all their exterior 
parts, while the department assigned for offices is concealed by trees and shrubs ; 
so the former should be alike open to inspection on all points, save that where the 
furnace is situated, where they may be quite as easily shrouded in similar 
plantations. 
To preserve this openness round a conservatory, and at the same time retain it 
at a convenient nearness to some part of the boundary to the pleasure-grounds 
where coals can be deposited, and the plants taken for potting, extensive plantations 
will be necessary to hide the walls or other unsightly things that will necessarily 
be in the neighbourhood. If it can be so contrived that conservatories be brought 
within a short distance of the kitchen-garden, where fuel is always kept, and sheds 
are ever at hand, a great advantage will be gained. 
The last condition we have named is, perhaps, necessarily involved in the first ; 
a fitness for the plants and shrubberies being a natural consequence of levelness. 
We wish here, however, just to give a hint on the arrangement of the ground. 
Our view of the matter is that it should be very like that of the surface on which 
the mansion stands, only on a less expansive scale ; the nearest space being covered 
with flower-beds, cut in the turf, or intersected with small gravel- walks, and these 
gradually passing into clumps, scattered over the lawn, and finally being bounded 
by an irregular plantation. The size of this area must vary with that of the 
