EMBELLISHMENTS. 
441 
After all that we have said respecting architectural and 
rustic decorations of the grounds, we must admit that it re- 
quires a great deal of good taste and judgment, to introduce 
and distribute them so as to be in good keeping with the 
scenery of country residences. A country residence, where 
the house with a few tasteful groups of flowers and shrubs, 
and a pretty lawn, with clusters and groups of luxuriant trees, 
are all in high keeping and evincing high order, is far more 
beautiful and pleasing than the same place, or even one of 
much larger extent, where a profusion of statues, vases, and 
fountains, or rockwork and rustic seats are distributed 
throughout the garden and grounds, while the latter, in 
themselves, show slovenly keeping, and a crude and meagre 
knowledge of design in Landscape Gardening. 
Unity of expression , is the maxim and guide in this 
department of the art, as in every other. Decorations can 
never be introduced with good effect, when they are at 
variance with the character of surrounding objects. A 
beautiful Grecian villa may, with the greatest propriety, re- 
ceive the decorative accompaniments of elegant vases, sun- 
dials, or statues, should the proprietor choose to display his 
wealth and taste in this manner ; but these decorations 
would be totally misapplied in the case of a plain square 
edifice, evincing no architectural style in itself. 
In addition to this, there is great danger that a mere lover 
of fine vases may run into the error of assembling these 
objects indiscriminately in different parts of his grounds, 
where they have really no place, but interfere with the quiet 
character of surrounding nature. He may overload the 
grounds with an unmeaning distribution of sculpturesque or 
artificial forms, instead of working up those parts where art 
predominates in such a manner, by means of appropriate 
56 
