ON THE SPRING DECOKATION OP FLQ-WER BEDS. 
from the ten'ace at Heidelberg. The introduction of any more tri^^al featm-es, or of decorative features 
beyond the terrace, would destroy the proper character of a terrace of this description, which must still 
preserve a portion of the severity belonging to the castellated period. 
Of decorative gardens of a strictly palatial character, where no remains of the castellated style are 
visible, those of Italy are the finest models, and among the finest specimens of these, taking into con- 
sideration the position, are those occupying sites among the beautiful rocky slopes of the Appcnines, 
in the vicinity of Tivoli and Frascati, the noble and regular terraces of which, tier above tier, in 
contrast with the rugged yet lovely scenery which surrounds them, form the finest combination of 
outline imaginable. 
From the days of Horace, and his description of his " Sabine farm," those beautifid hills have been 
the favom-ite retreat of the Romans; and the style of decorative gardening which surrounds the palaces 
of the nobles of modern Eome is, doubtless, very similar to that cultivated by the ancients. This is, in 
fact, proved by the representations of subm-ban villas in fi'agments of antique frescoe and mosaic, while 
the description wliicli PKny gives of liis garden might serve for that of one of the modern villas at 
Tivoli. The finest of these villas were erected during the fifteenth and sixteenth centm-ies, and as the 
feeling of Italian art spread rapidly northward during this period, the terraces, statues, and fountains 
of these noble residences became the models on which the decorative gardens of the North of Em-ope 
were formed; those of Boboli and D'Este being the ideals from which Le Brun and others produced 
the magnificent wonders of Versailles. 
The villa D'Este beneath Tivoli, though its terraces are crumbling to ruin, and its fountains are dry, is 
yet one of the most wonderful of these great creations of art. It was among its mazes of marble and 
matted foliage that Tasso once mused away the soft and sudden twilight of the evenings of an Italian 
summer, and from the fairy pictm-e with which he was surrounded painted, in immortal poetry, the 
fairy gardens of the palace of Armida ; and, in all the freshness of their beauty, ere Time had touched 
" with liis defacing finger " the spotless marble, or di-ied the soirrces of the countless fountains, or 
thinned the parquets of thcii' exotic flowers, he might in vain have sought a more fittmg model when 
he was composing the lines which may be thus freely translated: — 
With aspect sweet the smiling garden spreads 
"V^Tiere waters softly sleep, or gush in crystal founts ; 
Flowers and sweet herbs form rich enamellud beds ; 
Vales of deep shade there are, and sunny mounts, 
And round the lawns a wood its freshness sheds ; 
And that which yet increased each charm revealed 
Was, t/tat the art that wrou(/ht it lay concealed. 
Which is to say, that true art must not be obtrusive; the effects produced must not suggest the idea 
of painful and laborious operation ; it is the perception of the beautiful that must be the first imijression, 
and not that of the art by which it has been produced. This will depend much upon whether the 
beauty attempted to be created be of a temporary or a permanent natui-e — whether, as Su' Uvedale 
Price observes — whether it be merely adapted to the accidental prejudices prevalent in the artist's own 
day, or whether its principles be so foimded upon the uniform constitution of the human mind as must 
command the approbation of any age. This great principle of all high art applies, continues Sir 
Uvedale Price, to nothing more strongly than decorative gardening. 
ON THE SPRING DECORATION OF FLOWER BEDS. 
By Mr. JOHN COX, Gardenek to W. Wells, Esq , Eedleaf. 
THAT a minute attention to matters, which, taken in detail, may be called trifling, constitutes the 
perfection of gardening as a whole, in the most imlimited acceptation of the term, must be con- 
sidered as a self-evident truth by every one at all conversant with the pi-oposition ; and, however 
gi-and and comprehensive may be the effects produced by the application of taste, those effects are 
traceable to the attention which has been paid to the several materials by which they are produced. 
There are few who enter a well-fm-nished and well-arranged conservatory who are aware of the vast 
amount of anxious care and attention to little things wliicli has been exercised before the splendour 
wluch they there behold has been produced ; and these cares and anxieties cannot be generalized : 
nearly every plant before them requires a peculiar treatment, and though standing before their eyes 
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