y^J NOTES ON DECOEATIVE GARDENING. 125 K^ 
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setting to the gem — no harmonious concord to accom23any the main buUding, with other tones in the 
same chord — no fi'aming to set it off — leaving them, in fact, like a picture without a frame, sm-- 
rounded with nothing but 
" Shaven lawns, that far around it creep, 
In one otomal, imdulating sleep." 
Yet the "natui-al" style, as it was called, or rather this poor sham of Natui'e — these artificial slopes, 
imitative hillocks, and unnatm'ally winding walks, were yet felt as a relief, after the reign of the over- 
wrought Dutch and French terrace school, and the fame of these "Jarclins Anglais" travelled to the Con- 
tinent, where, they were imitated in the grounds of almost every chateau, palace, or villa of importance, 
but imitated with rather more judgment, for the "jardin Anfffais^'v/as almost always placed at a distance 
from the house, from which its ii-rcgular featm-es were concealed by the stately forms of trees cropped 
into architectui'al form, or some other arrangement in accordance with the character of the dwelling. 
Yet this was not ahvays the case ; the new English system appears occasionally to have been 
carried to excess ; the Abbe De L'Isle, in his poem " les Jardms," complains of hills, lakes, and 
sloping woodlands, bemg crammed into situations totally unfitted for them, either ft-om theu- position or 
extent ; in the passage beginning with, I think — 
" Des lacs et des montagues sui- uu arpent de terrc," 
And I recollect, very recently even, when last in Paris, going to see a fm-nished house in the Chausse 
d'Antin, which was advertised, among attractions, to possess its "jardin Anc/lais." This interesting 
feature I found actually existing in a back com't of some sixty feet in depth ; but the smaUness of the 
space had not caused any of the main features of the "jardin Anrjlais" to be omitted : there was the 
undulating lawn and serpentine walks, the belt of Scotch firs, the winding rivulet with its rocky 
cascade, and the lake; also th.eforet des Sycamores, formed by groups of six or seven small and rather 
miserable specimens of that tree. 
In these preliminary remarks, I have endeavoured to show that the school of gardening, in which 
architectm-al ornament is overdone, and that in which it is altogether absent, are equally defective ; 
and I shall therefore attempt to point out the extent to which architectm-al features may be used in 
gardening, with advantage. It may easily be conceived that a house of considerable architectural pre- 
tension, placed at once in the midst of winding walks or sloping lawns, would appear less complete 
than when fronted by an esplanade or terrace, however moderate in extent or simple in construction. 
Of the old gardens, it has been said that they -were formalli/ laid out; but they were laid out to 
accompany that which was necessarily formal and symmetrical, namely, the main Hnes of the resi- 
dence, to which they served as a sort of mounting or frame. The engraving exhibits a rich — 
perhaps over rich — example of a villa residence of the high Italian school, surrounded with its legi- 
timate architectui'al embellishments, its natural framing and accompaniment : it is the Casino of the 
Sachetti family at Rome, built from the designs of Pietro Barettini da Cortona, and was once one of 
the finest specimens of this class of garden and villa architecture in existence, but when Vasi pub- 
lished his engraving, it was described as then going to decay. From this imposing composition, it .may 
be inferred that I consider architectural works, on an enormous and costly scale, as necessary to give 
due effect to a country residence, and blend it properly with the smTOunding landscape; but such is 
not the position I am about to assmne. On the contrary, I think that even a simple tm'fed embank- 
ment, surmounted by a low hedge, formed of some hardy evergreen shrub, cropped very square and 
flat at the top, might, either with or without the addition of a single and simple flight of steps, and a 
few appropriate pedestals and vases, be sufficient to produce the effect described as suitable, or, at all 
events, form a very desii'able approach to it. In accordance with the more u-regular and pictm-esque 
forms of cottage architecture, the terrace might be guarded by balustrades of sinaple rustic work of 
branches, which would produce a very agreeable and appropriate effect. A principal cause of the 
agreeable effect of stone or brick terraces is, that they harmonize in material, and consequently in 
colour, with the main building, thus carrjong out its tone to the landscape ; but still another step of 
modulation is requisite — the perfect blending even of these secondary architectm-al featm-es with the fore- 
ground of the landscape, and this may be judiciously effected by the aid of cropped trees ; which, while 
they agree in colour- with the landscape, yet harmonize in forms with the residence and the terrace, and 
so become a link holding harmoniously together with the gardenesque and the picturesque — the artistic 
and the natui-al — restricting om-selves in using these phrases to the irregular forms of natm-e, as the 
masters of landscape painting have loved to paint them, and not in the extended sense given to the ^ 
term by Price and others. 
