. 
a 
REVIEW 
between each, across the garden, is four feet, and down the garden, eight feet ten inches. They are planted with 
spring, summer, and autumn flowers mingled together ; and the spaces left, when those are over, are filled with 
greenhouse plants—viz., geraniums, verbenas, &c., German stocks, and tender annuals, which keep the colour 
until the frosts destroy them; the hardy perennials remain for the next season. 
The design of the rockworJc was taken from a small model representing the mountains of Savoy, with the 
valley of Chamouni : it has 
been the work of many years 
to complete it, the difficulty 
being to make it stand against 
the weather. Bain washed 
away the soil, and frost swell¬ 
ed the stones ; several times 
the main wall failed from the 
weight put upon it. The 
walls and the foundation are 
built of the red sandstone of 
the country; and the other 
materials have been collected 
. from various quarters, chiefly 
S from Wales; but it is now so 
\ generally covered with c-reep- 
k ing and alpine plants, that it 
| all mingles together in one 
~ mass. The outline, however, 
5 is carefully preserved ; and 
: part of the model that repre- 
^ sents “ Le Mer de Glace,” 
~ is worked with grey lime- 
3 stone, quartz, and spar. It 
| has no cells for plants: the 
~ spaces are filled up with broken 
I fragments of white marble, to 
~ look like snow ; and the spar 
£ is intended for the glacier. 
^ On the small scale of our en- 
| gravings, and without the aid 
3 of colour, it is altogether im- 
< possible to give an adequate 
$ idea of the sigularity and 
s beauty of this rocky boundary; 
3 and we may add that it is 
- equally impossible to create 
anything like it by mere me- 
chanical means. There must 
be the eye of the artist presid¬ 
ing over every step; and that 
artist must not only have 
formed an idea of the previous 
effect of the whole in his own 
mind, but must be capable of 
judging of every part of the 
work as it advances, with re¬ 
ference to that whole. In the 
case of this rock-work, Lady 
Broughton was her own artist; 
and the work which she has produced evinces the most exquisite taste for this description of scenery. It is true 
it must have occupied great part of her time for six or eight years; but the occupation must have been interesting ; 
and the result, as it now stands, must give her Ladyship the highest satisfaction. 
“ The rock-work is planted with a selection of the most rare and beautiful alpines, particularly with all the close- 
growing kinds ; each placed in a nidus of suitable soil, and the surface protected from the weather by broken 
fragments of stone, clean-washed river gravel, the debris of decayed rock, moss, or other suitable substances, 
according as the object is to retain moisture ; to evaporate moisture, in order to prevent the plants from damping 
I 
