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NOTES ON DECORATIVE GARDENING. 
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221 
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I 
lation from the castellated features of the residence, — and the park scenery beyond approaches, ■with 
natural and excellent effect, to the very base of the rampart wall ; and this severity of treatment is abso- 
lutely necessary to terraces of this description, on which all attempts at the introduction of statuary, roses, 
&c., would be utter failui'es. 
the only suitable ornament 
being a simple line of flower 
border next the building, with- 
in a broad edge of turf. The 
more gardenesque features of 
the castle must develop them- 
selves in a less conspicuous 
situation in the rear of the 
building ; and where wood or 
walls will shield them, and 
prevent them from weakening 
the severity of the main com- 
position. It will be instructive 
to step back to the period of 
castellated strongholds, and see 
how their builders and indwell- 
ers managed these matters in 
their own day. A magnificent 
pictorial border, from the ca- 
lendar of the prayer-book of 
Anne of Brittany, one of the 
finest illuminated MS.S. in ex- 
istence, will furnish us with an 
example ; it represents a rosery, 
enclosed by a battlemented wall 
partially screened by trees, 
much below the elevation of 
the castle. The Chatelaine is 
repx-esented visiting her castle- 
garden in one of the sunny 
days of April, where in some 
parts of France, Roses are al- 
ready in bloom, and she is in 
the act of receiving from her 
attendants chaplets and gar- 
lands of flowers, which are no 
doubt destined to decorate cha- 
lices and vases of cunning gold- 
smiths' work in her Gothic 
boudoir. This cotemporary gar- 
den picture, executed about the 
year 1499, contains many sug- 
gestions for garden features in 
similar situations, though not perhaps for too servile imitation, 
enclosing the rose-trees are gilt. 
Let us now consider the castle terrace in its later form, when the severe character of the defensive 
stronghold had been modified by additional biuldings of a later period engrafted upon them— the 
decorative mansion, hke the change in a " dissohdng view," emerging from among the towers of the 
defensive castle. Of this transition period, the terrace at Heidelberg, which, with the castle, forms one 
of the finest ruins in Em-ope, is a beautiful example. The embattled parapet of the ancient rampart 
has given place to an open balustrade, and the stone seats suggest, that, in the palmy days of this grand- 
ducal residence of the House of Baden, orange trees and other plants, in ornamental vases, mingled 
with statuary, to give this noble terrace its fijiishing touch of palatial grandem-— forming a rich fore- 
ground to the magnificent view of the course of the Necker,. which is the grand featm-e of the prospect 
THE TEREACfc; AT HEIUELBEUG. 
In the illumination, the palisades 
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