250 
LANDSCAPE GARDENING. 
from my house. I consulted/’ added his Lordship, “ the late Mr. 
Ripton on the matter, and his advice was 4 that the whole be removed 
back to the very spot where it had originally stood.” 
By this time we had gained the summit of a rising ground which 
overlooked the gardens and the valley in which they lay. They 
appeared to be extremely well laid out, in a rectangular form, walled 
round, and encompassed by a plantation of evergreen shrubs and forest 
trees. A range of hothouses extended across the upper end of the 
garden, and at the lower end, on the outside, was a small greenhouse 
or conservatory, surrounded by an irregular flower-garden. On one 
side, near the top, stands the gardener’s house, with a melon-ground 
and orchard in front. The whole is enclosed by a lofty hedge and deep 
ditch impassable by, and impenetrable to, deer or other cattle. 
It was not alone the distance the gardens lay from the house which 
his Lordship complained of, but of its greater liability to the visitations 
of night frosts in April and May; for though perfectly sheltered from 
wind, and on rather a rich spot of land, there is always more humidity 
in such situations, and consequently a lower temperature. This cir¬ 
cumstance I have alluded to in a former letter; but it is so often 
disregarded in fixing on a site for a garden, that it can hardly be too 
often repeated. 
It is not easy to guess what good reason could be adduced for 
banishing the kitchen-garden from the near neighbourhood of the 
house. No one, it is true, would wish to live among leeks, onions, or 
cabbage; but there is no necessity for this in any supposable case. An 
owner need not be condemned to walk through his kitchen-garden, 
neither should he be debarred looking at his culinary vegetables and 
fruit-trees, if so inclined. A well-designed and neatly-kept kitchen- 
garden is as gratifying to look at as the gayest parterre, although it be 
a gratification of a different kind. 
Pursuing our ride, we passed through a diversity of scenery, chiefly 
owing to the inequality of the surface. There are no hills certainly, 
but there are many beautifully winding hollows of considerable depth, 
which, being finely wooded on the sides, have a very striking effect 
when viewed from below. 
The woods, as their distance is increased from the house, assume 
more the character of forest scenery, there being much undergrowth of 
wild shrubs and self-sown young trees, forming together the most 
interesting and picturesque groups. The closely-nibbled portions of 
verdant turf which surrounded and flowed among these groups and 
detached parts of the wood, are as varied as possible, and ever forming 
the most pleasing combinations. This was, indeed, just such w r ood- 
