Beasy eS" 145 
La Notre and the ‘‘ Grande Monarque ” instead of progressing with the 
age. We are willing to admit that this is true to some extent, and 
that we are going back to the oldest and purest style of geometrical 
gardening. But we wish only to graft the improved materials which 
are now furnished us in the shape of new evergreens and flowering 
plants on the elaborate ‘‘ arabesques”” and beautiful scroll-work of the 
old masters; in fact, to combine the interest and beauty of modern 
results in gardening with that perfectness of pattern and rich elaborate- 
ness of design, which characterised the school of La Notre. 
We speak advisedly when we say that very many of our most 
celebrated gardens, and with them we shall class those of the Crystal 
Palace, are laid out with no leading principle of design in their com- 
position. They are, to speak plainly, composed of miscellaneous aggre- 
gations of parts, frequently at variance with each other, and very 
rarely presenting a unity of composition, taking even each part by 
itself. We do not condemn this arrangement so much as we do the 
after-management, or planting, on which point nearly every garden we 
inspect appears to us to be degenerating into a mere formality—a re- 
petition over and over again of the same system and the same plants. 
We regret this the more as we frequently have witnessed marked and 
distinctive features about places which, if taken advantage of, might 
have been converted into scenes individually interesting, and appropriate 
to the situation. 
We have stated already how much the taste for excessive 
flower-colouring has increased of late years—we fear at the expense 
of more really important objects. How interesting in our young 
days used to be a visit to Woburn, to look over the various col- 
lections of plants, hardy and exotic, for which it was then famous ; 
or to Wentworth, to see Mr. Cooper's Orchids and Scitaminez, to 
say nothing of the kitchen garden; or to magnificent Chatsworth 
(thanks to Sir J. Paxton, we hear that this place is not modernised 
yet), with its giant conservatory, its Lily house, Orchid houses, 
and, above all, its carefully arranged arboretum and conservative 
wall. Then there was Syon, when Forrest maintained a style of 
keeping most admirably adapted to the place. At the present time 
the arboretum at Bicton is worth a journey from London into Devon- 
shire to see, planted by Glendinning before flower-gardening, as it is 
now, had absorbed every thought ; it is the great feature of the place 
and county. Let us ask what comparison can be drawn between a 
modern flower garden and the interesting and unique collection of 
plants which occupy the grounds at Abbotsbury Castle on the Dorset 
_ coast (which affords a striking evidence of what may be done by taking 
advantage of peculiar localities), or let us take the Conifere at Bay- 
fordbury, or the general collection of evergreens at Elvaston, where we 
hardly know which to admire most, the beauty of the plants or the 
artistic skill which arranged them. ‘Thanks to some proprietors, there 
remain many places where other things beside Cal eolarias and scarlet 
Geraniums are cared for. The grand banks of American plants at 
Tottenham Park and Highclere are not yet grubbed up to make 
room for Verbena beds, and we hope will long remain, as worthy. 
VOL. XIV., NO, CXLIX. L 
