EMBELLISHMENT OF SMALL AREAS. 
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pose to vary the walk, so as to give it a more interesting character, and 
would keep in view some general plan, to which every detail should be 
subservient and conducive. 
c< A little rock-work would have an excellent effect, and might be 
composed of flints, and of bricks run together in the kiln, which last 
are called burs. Trees and tall-growing plants should be placed at the 
top, and small flowers and creepers at the bottom of the rock-work, or 
it will have neither beauty nor effect. 
“ The soil in a town garden becomes, in a year or two, completely 
saturated with soot. This evil is, in a great measure, without remedy; 
but something may be done by procuring a little fresh earth, and laying 
it on the old soil. Fresh loam from a common is the best for this 
purpose. 
“ Gravel must be annually renewed, or it will have a very sombre 
appearance. There is no better gravel than that of Kensington. I 
have heard of gentlemen having it carried by sea to their gardens in 
Wales and the north of Scotland. 
“ Manure will be found very requisite, for without it the ground 
cannot well support strong-growing herbaceous plants for two years in 
succession. I should recommend that a very small quantity of lime be 
laid on the ground in one year, and thoroughly decomposed stable 
manure, about two inches deep, in the next year. November is a good 
season for laying the manure on the ground; and it should be dug in 
and thoroughly mixed with the earth to a considerable depth when 
the borders are trenched in March.”— Ibid. 
Embellishment of small Ay' eas.— <e Cultivation of taste for picturesque 
horticulture is too generally neglected, through erroneous apprehension 
of its requiring an extensive field for practical experiment, or through 
inadequate conception of its inexhaustible fund of gratification to an 
ardent devotee. But th6 principles of true taste may, with perfect 
facility, be developed, and b3 productive of happy effects, on a very 
reduced scale. About three-score years ago, a perfect nuisance to the 
city of Exeter, its southern castle-ditch, was converted into one of the 
most elegant pleasure-grounds in the kingdom. Recently, the site of 
its northern ditch has sustained similar improvement ; the former not 
approaching two acres, the latter scarcely exceeding half an acre;— 
nay, a trivial area, not larger than an ordinary sitting-room, may and 
has been modelled on a principle of correct picturesque character. It 
is vexatious, therefore, to witness the egregiously tasteless disposition 
of areas in public squares, and in fronts of rows of houses. 
“ The space of only a few yards might be converted into a tasteful 
