28 
THE COTTAGE GAEDENEll. 
OcTOnER I t. 
taste—refined taste, ojkI vulgar taste,” arc a mere bowil- | 
dering enigma, being interpreted by ns many minds to 
mean as many dilferent tilings. Hence, too, our most 
learned and able writers on taste, gardenesque effect, 
&c., speak so astutely ahoiit " imitatini] nature—fuUowimj 
nature—taking nature for our guide,” this same nature 
being a very useful, somewhat nndefinablo “ looming”— 
something for adorning a sentence, or clenching an 
argument. And yet bow indefinite is the idea commu¬ 
nicated. Wo know that in all culture of plants we 
must take our first teachings from nature, ponder over 
and endeavour to supply the circumstances in which 
plants, unaided by man, flourish the most; but there, 
in an artistic point of view, the matter mostly ends. 
Surely it is not intended by the “imitators of nature,” 
that our park scenery is to be the beau ideid of a thick 
forest, that has received its planting from the winds and 
birds of heaven; that our jileasure grounds are to 
resemble untrodden prairie, or the thickets by the side 
of a tropical stream ; or that our flower-beds and plant- 
houses should have their exact counterpart in the cir¬ 
cumstances, as well as flowers that deck the mountain's 
brow, and peep through the tangled glade. All these 
have their charms, and will ever command admiration ; 
but artistic loveliness—the seen and felt presence of the 
tending, training hand of man, and yet not offensively 
obtruded—constitutes the delight of the garden. Make 
the position and the circumstances connected with every 
demesne, however humble, the first principle, the ground 
work of all ornamental gardening operations; and in¬ 
stead of unmeaning combinations, or servile imitations, 
we shall have little Edens, as interesting as they are 
diversified. Follow out in such arrangements the 
imitation-of-nature principle, and our Paradises would 
become monstrous wildernesses, eliciting, after all, but 
little of the kindred emotions we experience in beholding 
more natural scenery, that has cost man but little 
money or labour. 
True, the introduction of the wild and picturesque 
in garden-scenery is sometimes attended with the most 
delightful results. But several things are necessary to 
secure that result. First: The natural circumstances, 
as respects character and position, must be suitable. 
Secondly : The grounds must be so large, that the clearly 
artistic gardenesque, and the more concealed artistic 
])icturesque, should not be jumbled together. A knotty, 
wrinkled, hollow pollard, filled with flowers, looks beau¬ 
tiful on a lawn, at some distance from an elegant man¬ 
sion. An artistic vase looks best near such a house. 
The beauty of the one and the other eousists in their 
being so separated, that the mind and the eye alike 
have spaee for repose, before contemplating their sepa¬ 
rate beauties. Place them in juxtaposition, and you 
j destroy the peculiar interest of both. Contrasts of 
j opposite styles do not interfere with ; they even help, 
and are necessary to a higher style of beauty, to a moi'e 
! .perfect wholeness; but then these contrasts must be 
i gradual, not commingled or rudely clashed together ; for 
as we can only contemplate one set of ideas successfully 
at one and the same moment, for the sake of a bewilder¬ 
ing variety and contrast we lose all the benefits and 
beauties of a “ uniUj of expression.” 
I feel myself a very tyro in these matters, though 
eonvinced as to the general correctness of the inferences 
adduced. In proportion as civilization and refinement 
advance, it will be found that these trifling things will 
gain in importance. A good while ago, similar ideas 
were broached, when, in answer to inquiries, I endea¬ 
voured to define the meaning of the terms 6reenhouse 
and Conservatory, mentioning that the first was a house 
. for preserving plants in pots and boxes, while the latter 
j was a habitation for exotic-plants, planted out in the 
soil. I endeavoured to shew that a higher style of 
I beauty would be insured, by as much as possible 
I attending to these eharacteristics, and thus instead of ' 
eonfounding, promote “ unity of expression.” J do not ■ 
recollect if I instanced any facts in confirmation. J,ct , 
mo just mention what convinced me more fully then, j 
and what still further confirms me now. At one of the ! 
Regent’s Park Exhihitions, two years ago, the show of : 
American plants was in full magnificence. One jiecji j 
below tbe awning was a realization of tbe dreams of ! 
Fairy-land. Even the beauty of the ladies, dazzling as it j 
was, seemed I'or once to be shaded. Much, no doubt, ; 
dejiended upon the beautiful arrangement, and the j 
ground-plan so diversified, with bank and declivity, j 
miniature bill and dale, hut not a little also dcjicnded j 
upon the fact, that not a pot or box were to be seen. As 1 
you traversed the regular exhibition-tents, unity of idea 
was again so far prevalent, that every thing had its pot, 
or box, or block, or basket; but when, after this you : 
entered the beautiful conservatory, and felt delighted in I 
examining the fine healthy specimens of growth, there i 
was still a teeling of the heterogenous associated with the 
whole, and that mostly owing to the fact, that many of 
the best plants ivcre planted out, while others stood in j 
large pots, &c., while collections of small pots were so ' 
grouped in masses that the individual pots were easily ! 
seen. It does not become me to criticize the mode j 
adopted there, or at the rival garden at Chiswick. : 
Puhlic bodies must frequently attend to much besiilcs 
little matters in taste. Still, I think there arc few but 
wnll own that if in the conservatory at Cliiswick, while | 
the side-])latfonn, as now, is devoted to plants in pots, ; 
the plants in the centre bed were not j)a.rtiaUy, but 
wholly planted out, or so plunged with their ]iots as to 
seem to be so, that a higher style of beauty would be 
manifested, merely because a unity of expression was 
thus made apparent. The same facts struck me forcibly 
as respects the large conservatory at Kew, when I tra¬ 
versed it during the summer. I mention these, because 
the instances are well known, and because, from the 
great good that has been done by these Societies, and 
the influence they properly and deservedly exercise, 
whatever is done is noted down as an example by gar¬ 
deners and their employers. 
Now I have not seen many places where these simple 
ideas are rigidly carried out, but if I wanted any thing 
to convince me of their soundness, it would be my recent 
glance at the grounds, and the well-known large conser¬ 
vatory at Chatsworth. The very position of the build¬ 
ing is a master-stroke of policy, combining all the ad¬ 
vantages of unity of expression, with the pleasure de¬ 
rived from contrast, between the gardenesque, the pic¬ 
turesquely romantic, and the more purely artistic linea¬ 
ments of the noble building; situated in an amphithea¬ 
tre of wood (or seemingly so), peculiarly its own. Just 
fancy such a huge airy building, so attractive to the eye 
outside, by its stripes of blue and white painting. Crystal 
Palace fashion, set dowm near the Palace of the Peak, or in 
the middle, or even at the side of the highly-kept grounds, 
and imagine the bewilderment with which a stranger 
must contemplate the scene, purely from the want of 
rejmse between the different objects, the inability to grasp 
the whole atonce. You comenot, therefore, on the conser¬ 
vatory immediately on leaving the finer dressed greunds. 
Y^ou enter upon walks, which gradually become more j 
picturesque, through the wooded hill, that overhangs I 
alike the dressed grounds and the classic Derwent; i 
these walks, as you traverse them, become more wildly j 
romantic. Embosomed in one nook you see masses of ; 
fern—in others, and creeping over huge stones, some of : 
the finer and hardy American plants; now you pass a j 
huge boulder of rock—again, another that rocks at the { 
slightest touch ; and ever and anon you pass huge ; 
heights of these masses of rocks, piled securely and 
firmly, yet wildly upon each other, leading your thoughts ' 
back to the doings of the giant Titans of old, when they ] 
