28 
LANDSCAPE GARDENING. — EARLY ENGLISH STYLE. 
without dusting them with lime.) Then I cover 
them with three inches of soil, and as the 
potatoes advance in growth, I keep earthing 
them up (celery fashion) until the centre of 
the spaces between the rows becomes a hollow 
instead of being a height. If possible I never 
allow my potatoes to expend their strength in 
producing premature and consequently useless 
growths. I would rather — could I not keep 
them cool and backward enough out of the 
ground — plant them very early. 
Although I have them planted in wide-a- 
part rows, I plant them close in the rows, four 
to six inches being my common distance; con- 
sequently I have as great a quantity, and of 
better quality, per acre, as I should have by 
the ordinary close-planting mode. 
By such a mode of culture, I have repeatedly 
had the shy -bearing ash-leaved kidney early 
yield me, at an average, an imperial peck per 
each four shaws or plants. 
John McDonald, C.M.C. H.S. 
LANDSCAPE GARDENING. 
EARLY ENGLISH STYLE. 
This is comparatively anew term, at least 
a new title, among us. When I was a boy, 
ground workmen were common, and they 
were chiefly nurserymen; who, when a noble- 
man or gentleman wished to have a bit of 
dressed ground for flowers and shrubs, near 
his house, as a nurseryman, found both labour 
and plants, and likewise gave the plan and 
formed the walks. 
During the turbulent times, when the 
sovereign and bold barons of this country 
were often at variance, or the barons with 
each other, every country residence was a 
castle, or fortified either by deep moats or 
lofty walls. "When better government and 
more peaceful times arrived, these domestic de- 
fences became useless, and were gradually demo- 
lished and cleared away. This clearing away 
of the old defences happening simultaneously, 
occasioned a great demand for such ground 
workmen ; and in the midst of their levelling 
operations, various schemes were devised for 
laying out and occupying the ground which 
had been levelled. Italian and Dutch garden- 
ing had been admired by travellers, who had 
visited those countries, and on their return 
spoke so highly of their geometrical flower- 
gardens and tapiary work, that many imita- 
tions of them were made in this country, 
especially about royal and noble palaces. It 
became, indeed, fashionable to surround 
country-houses with rectangidar gardens and 
right-lined beds, borders, avenues, &c, as is 
shown in the gardens of Hampton Court, 
Kensington, and other places built in the 
same reign. Soon afterwards, however, the 
national taste in gardening underwent a total 
change. Dutch gardening, with its right lines 
and its rectangular dispositions, were all con- 
demned as unnatural and trifling; and ir- 
regular forms bounded by waving or curved 
outlines, became the fashion. This style, 
from its general adoption >in the country, has 
been called the English, as opposed to the 
Dutch and Italian styles : and so much has it 
been approved, that almost all the ornamental 
scenery, which has been formed during the 
last hundred years, has been laid out in the 
English style. The opportunities afforded for 
the display of this style of gardening were 
either in the improvement of old places, or in 
forming those which were entirely new. In 
the improvement of old residences, the house 
generally underwent a thorough repair, and 
probably considerable alterations, both within 
and without, under the directions of some 
celebrated architect. To fall in with the then 
reigning taste the architect would probably 
advise the stables, laundry, and kitchen- 
garden to be removed to some distance away 
from the mansion. When these arrangements 
were completed, the ground workman was 
called in to do the levelling — to trace the re- 
quisite lines of roads and walks, and to do the 
necessary planting. The grand endeavour of 
both the architect and ground workman at 
that period, say about 1750, was to set the 
house upon a naked lawn ; for all the out- 
works, whether terraces, walls, or offices, were 
accounted eyesores, and consequently were 
all cleared away. And so absolutely neces- 
sary was this surrounding platform of turf 
deemed, as adding to the beauty of the house, 
and giving perfect freedom of view from every 
window, that access to the kitchen door, for 
servants and tradespeople, was often sub- 
terranean. If trees, however ancient, en- 
croached too near the house, or if a venerable 
avenue led to it, they were instantly con- 
demned and removed. The boundary of the 
park was, perhaps, enlarged, and all hedge 
and ditch fences within the same were grub- 
bed and levelled; and if any ploughed field 
was visible from the windows, that was laid 
down to grass. If any single trees stood in 
the hedge-rows, some of them were preserved, 
and to them were added various-sized clumps 
of forest trees, as the taste or skill of the 
designer might think proper ; and if a new 
approach to the house was required, he traced 
out, and formed that also. Forming a gravel 
walk from the house to the kitchen-garden 
was also confided to him, and which he led in 
the most convenient line, and usually between 
two borders of trees and shrubs, parted from 
the park by a hedge and ditch, or some other 
kind of fence. He also fixed the site of the 
