368 
LANDSCAPE GARDENING. 
we see a statue or a vase placed in any part of the grounds 
where a near view is obtained of the house (and its accom- 
panying statues or vases), the whole is accounted for, and 
we feel the distant vase to be only a part of, or rather a 
repetition of the same idea,— -in other words, that it forms 
part of a whole, harmonious and consistent. 
Vases of real stone, as marble or granite, are decorations 
of too costly a kind ever to come into general use among 
us. Vases, however, of equally beautiful forms, are manu- 
factured of artificial stone, of fine pottery, or of cast iron, 
which have the same effect, and are of nearly equal dura* 
bility, as garden decorations. 
A vase should never, in the open air, be set down upon 
the ground or grass, without being placed upon a firm base 
of some description, either a plinth or a pedestal. Without 
a base of this kind it has a temporary look, as if it had been 
left there by mere accident, and without any intention of 
permanence. Placing it upon a pedestal, or square plinth 
(block of stone), gives it a character of art, at once more 
dignified and expressive of stability. Besides this, the 
pedestal in reality serves to preserve the vase in a perpen- 
dicular position, as well as to expose it fairly to the eye, 
which could not be the case were it put down, without any 
preparation, on the bare turf or gravel. 
Figure 63 is a Gothic, and Figures 64, 65, are 
Grecian vases, commonly manufactured in plaster 
in our cities, but which are also made of Roman 
cement. They are here shown upon suitable 
pedestals — a being the vase, and h the pedestal. 
® These with many other elegant vases and urns are 
manufactured in an artificial stone, as durable as 
]Fig. 63.] 
marble, by Austin of London, and together with a great 
