NOTES OX df.coratitt: gaedextng. 
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THE PAI'AL CVEDEKS OF THE BEITEDKRE. 
NOTES ON DECORA.TIVE GARDENING.— Akchiteciueal Tekkaces. 
By H. XOEL HTJirPHREYS, Esa. 
fHAVE, in my last communication, shoTvn how terraces may be produced at an exceedingly moderate 
expense, suitable to various styles of cottage and villa architecture, and it is on this moderate scale 
that suggestions for the formation of terraces -wlII interest the greatest number ; but this most important 
feature of decorative gai'dening would be but imperfectly explained did we finish the series without 
allading to terraces in their more palatial form, and in theii- noblest proportions. It is not always 
necessary to terrace effects, on the largest scale, that architectiual decorations should be introduced, 
for, by simple embankments, as suggested in our paper on cottage terraces, gai-denesque featui-es of 
a very noble character, and suited to residences of the highest class, may be obtained. The above 
engraving, ft-om a portion of the Papal Gardens of the Belvedere at the back of the Palace of the 
Vatican at Rome, will serve to show what may be produced by such simple means; and though stiU 
susceptible of great improvement, the geometi'ical figures produced by deep box edgings, and the 
symmeti-ical effect given to the variety of elevation by the embankments, are evidences of a true feel- 
ing for the garden csque in the designer. The effects to be produced near main terraces, by deep, massive 
box edgings, have been much neglected, and might be revived with great effect : but this featui'C must 
be cautiously used, and not carried too far, as, in that case, the attempts invariably sink into the mcri- 
tiicious — when, for instance, these cropped edgings are tortured into initial ciphers, or even entii-e 
epigrams, as in some of the later Italian villas ; or to select a more modern instance, in the magniii- 
eent gardens of the Earl of Shrewsbmy at Alton Towers — gardens reclaimed by art from land, 
which some years ago was no other than a barren waste — where, if my memory serves me correctly, 
a bust has been placed upon a marble column, in a conspicuous part of the ornamental gardens, at the 
base of which, the ingenious and persevei-ing spectator may decipher, in the cropped box, the motto, 
" He made the desert smile,"* in honour of the late Earl of Slirewsbuiy, under whose directions the 
improvements were effected. Such elaborate conceits are apt to make the spectator smile ; but they are 
not, as I have observed, without their precedent, for some of the finest of the Italian villas are disfigm-ed 
by similar effusions, and to a much greater extent — of which several ridiculous and scaixcly credible 
examples might be cited. 
Of the more architectural terrace, with its full complement of statuary, vases, fountains, &:c., the 
* I am not certain whether the vegetable literature may not be coniined to initial cyphers, and the motto itself engraved on 
the column ; if so, the cyphers serve the purpose of illustration equally "well. [(0 b 
