THE COTTAGE GARDENER AND COUNTRY GENTLEMAN'S COMPANTON.— May 27, 1850. 
154 
and must lje rigidly avoided. But this only applies to 
the general features. There are always many secluded 
spots where every extravagance of design may with propriety 
he indulged in, without in any way destroying the general 
keeping of the whole. I shall have occasion to enlarge upon 
this branch of tho subject in a future paper. 
In grounds of limited extent, and such as are wholly 
detached from the surrounding scenery, as those of many 
suburban residences, it often becomes a question of moment 
how to make the most in appearance of the space at com¬ 
mand. In such situations the attention will, in general, be 
wholly confined within the boundary of tho garden, and as 
there will be no surrounding objects to be taken into con¬ 
sideration, the fancy may be allowed its full play, provided 
it is never permitted to violate good taste. There, walks 
may be excavated, mounds raised, and grottoes and arched 
j passages leading from one spot to another may be profusely 
j employed. Intricacy must compensate for the want of 
I extent, aud variety do duty for distant views, 
j It may be assumed as a principle, that wherever a garden 
' is to be formed in a style wholly at variance with the sur¬ 
rounding grounds, a well-defined boundary should be evi¬ 
dent. Many, indeed the greater part of gardens of suburban 
residences, are of sonic regular outline, as a paralellogram, 
the longest part being in the direction from the front oppo¬ 
site the entrance door. The usual mode of arranging such 
gardens is to confine the lawn and flower-beds to a part of 
the ground near the house, placing the kitchen-garden at 
the far end. A much better arrangement is, I think, often 
possible. 1 would, when the ground is of sufficient extent, 
place the kitchen-garden as a smaller paralellogram within 
the larger one; removing it, however, as far from the 
house as possible to secure a good breadth of lawn, and 
allowing sufficient space on all sides for a walk round the 
whole garden, with the agreeable accessories of shrubs and 
flowers, if not of a strip of lawn in addition. There are few 
gardens of the kind alluded to that would not admit of such 
an arrangement, aud as regards planting out the vegetable 
department, no obstacle could present itself that might not 
be readily combatted. 
I have said that the general arrangement of the pleasure- 
ground should always depend, in a great measure, upon 
the nature of the locality which it is to occupy. The design 
must always he adapted to the particular situation in which 
it is to he worked out. If two given sites are to he laid out 
ornamentally, and both have exactly the same outline and 
dimensions, a design that would be well adapted for one, 
may, nevertheless, be wholly unsuited for the other. The 
beauties of many a fine situation are often entirely lost from 
the fact of the design being prepared from no other data 
than the mere figure and dimensions of the area to he laid 
out; or from its being simply ail adaptation of some pre¬ 
existing design. 
Many a design, too, is chosen in preference to others, 
from the simple fact of its looking best upon paper. Of 
course, I do not, for a moment, deprecate the value of a 
plan; on the contrary, I always recommend tho adoption of 
one; for even in carrying out slight alterations, a previously- 
arranged recorded plan tends to facilitate the progress, as 
well as to economise the expenses of the work. I need hardly 
observe, however, that many persons—and those most in¬ 
terested, too—do not always recognise the truth of this till 
they have paid dearly for the omission. Work began with¬ 
out any definite idea of what is to he accomplished, may he 
said never to be properly finished. This is a most fallacious 
mode of deciding, especially if the grounds are extensive, 
and the surface irregular. The plans for public grounds 
are, unfortunately, usually chosen in this way, and that, too, 
in many cases, by those whose occupation or pursuits do 
not entitle them to give an opinion of any value upon the 
subject. I make the observation in all humility, and with 
becoming deference to tbe opinions of others; but it is, I 
conceive, no more disparagement to the professional attain¬ 
ments of an architect that he is not conversant with the 
practice of physic, than it is derogatory to a member of a 
Town Council, who is entirely unacquainted with rural 
affairs, not to be able to pronounce upon matters relating 
to the scenery of a public park. In a plan every part is 
brought immediately under the eye ; it is viewed as a whole, 
and the separate parts can only be judged of in relation to 
each other. The eye is naturally pleased with a symmetrical 
avangement; in fact, this quality must exist in every com¬ 
bination that delights it. No matter whether it he a paint¬ 
ing, or a view in nature ; a human figure, or one in marble; 
a group of figures, or an assembly of thousands; or what¬ 
ever subject you can name, if the eye is to he pleased in the 
contemplation, the arrangement must he more or less sym¬ 
metrical. This, however, is not the place to discuss the 
matter, further than to apply to it the subject under considera¬ 
tion, which is simply this : that as a pleasure ground, except 
when of very limited extent, is not intended to lie seen at 
one view, but, on the contrary, is to he made up of a series 
of detached scenes, each of which is separately to engage 
the attention, it follows that a studied symmetrical arrange¬ 
ment of the whole is not necessary. Now, it is a matter call 
iug for no large amount of ingenuity or taste, to take a given 
outline, and to trace within it a combination of walks and 
shrubberies; to indicate groups of, and detached, trees, ifeo., 
which, when viewed as a whole in a finished plan, shall ap¬ 
pear highly satisfactory and artistic as a mere pattern ; and 
if such plan were to he executed on a tolerably fiat surface, 
where no notice need be taken of surrounding objects, or of 
such as may occupy any portion of the ground to he laid 
out, it would, perhaps, be found suitable enough; but in 
practice, such a mode of proceedure can very rarely be suc¬ 
cessfully adopted. There is ever something to he adapted; 
it may be an irregularity of surface, or existing groups of 
trees ; some delightful prospect to be gained, or an offensive 
object to he hidden, or all of these, with many more com¬ 
bined, that will render it a plan adapted to the particu- 
cular surface upon which it is to be realised. "Willi purely 
geometrical gardens this is not so imperative, although, even 
in them, adaptation forms no mean element in a well- 
arranged and successful plan. This I shall consider more 
fully in a future paper.— George Lovell, Landscape Gar¬ 
dener, Baijshot. 
{To he continued.) 
GEORGE DON. 
Died, on Feb. 25th, in Bedford-place, Kensington, aged 
58, George Don, Esq., F.L.S., the last of a well-known 
family of botanists. 
Mr. Don was a brother of the late David Don, librarian 
and curator of tho Linnean Society, and latterly I’rofessor of 
Botany in King’s College, and both were sons of Mr. George 
Don, of Forfar, an admirable field botanist of tbe old school, 
to whom we are indebted for the discovery of mnny interest¬ 
ing plants of the Highlands, communicated in letters to Sir 
James Smith, author of the English Botany. 
Mr. George Don, the son, was born in Forfar, in 1708, and 
commenced his scientific career as an assistant in the 
Botanic Garden, Chelsea. He subsequently travelled as 
collector of tbe Horticultural Society in Brazil, in the West 
Indies, and in Sierra Leone, and added largely to their 
collections, both of living and dried plants. Mr. Don’s first 
contribution to botanical science was a clever paper in tbe 
Transactions of tho Wernerian Society of Edinburgh, 
published in 1822, and lie contributed some useful memoirs 
to tbe Transactions of tbe Linnean Society. Ilis principal 
work was a General System of Gardening and Botany, 
founded on Miller's Gardener’s Dictionary, in four quarto 
volumes, with numerous woodcuts, 1851-7. In 1855 he 
assisted Mrs. Loudon in editing a new edition of her late 
husband’s Encyclopedia of Plants.— Gentleman's Magazine. 
(It was in the November of 1821 that Mr. George Don 
accompanied Captain Sabine, of tho Royal Artillery, on 
board the Iphegenia frigate, in the prosecution of scientific 
objects in and about the tropics. They were, in the firstt 
instance* to visit tho western coast of Africa, thence to 
proceed to the opposite shores of South America, and the 
West Indian Islands, returning to England in tbe autumn 
of 1822. Mr. Don arrived at Sierra Leone in February, 
1822, proceeded along tbe coast to tbe southward, stayed 
some weeks at the Island of St. Thomas, formed, as Mr. 
Sabine remarked, “ a very interesting collection of specimens, 
and obtained a more ample account of tropical fruits than 
had hitherto been given to the public." This account was 
published in the fifth volume of the Horticultural Society’s 
