Imagens das páginas
PDF
ePub

error; or, at least, involved himself in a considerably larger outlay, or rendered the whole design patchy and disjointed.

1. Possibly the greatest and most prevalent mistake of those who lay out gardens for themselves is attempting too much. A mind unaccustomed to generalise, or to take in a number of leading objects at a glance, finds out the different points embraced in landscape gardening one by one, and, unable to decide which of them can most suitably be applied, determines on trying to compass more than can really be attained. One thing after another is, at different times, observed and liked, in some similar place that is visited, and each is successively wished to be transferred to the observer's own garden, withont regard to its fitness for the locality, or its relation to what has previously been done. A neighbour or a friend has a place in which certain features are exquisitely developed, and these are at once sought to be copied. The practice of cutting up a garden into mere fragments, which is unhappily of too frequent occurrence, is the natural result of such a state of things.

There are several ways in which a place may be frittered away, so as to be wholly deficient in character and beauty. It may be too much broken up in its general arrangement; and this is the worst variety of the fault, because least easily mended, and most conspicuous. To aim at comprising the principal features proper to the largest gardens in those of the most limited size, is surely not a worthy species of imitation, and one which can only excite ridicule, and end in disappointment. There is a wide difference between that variety which is so desirable, and the separation into minute parts, or blending of incongruous materials, now deprecated; the former being quite compatible with both unity and simplicity.

A place may likewise and easily be too much carved up into detached portions, or overshadowed, or reduced in apparent size, by planting too largely. Trees and shrubs constitute the greatest ornaments of a garden; but they soon become disagreeable, when a place is overrun with them, by contracting the space, and shutting out light, and rendering the grass imperfect, and the walks mossy. Nothing could be more damp, and gloomy, and confined, than a small place too much cumbered with plantations. Nor is the consideration of its influences on the health of the occupants at all unimportant; for where sun

and wind cannot get free play, a moist and stagnant air, very injurious to all animal life, is necessarily occasioned.

But if this be the case with regard to any superfluous vegetation in general, it is much more true in respect to large timber trees. To introduce or retain many of these in a small garden is quite contrary to all the principles of good taste, and conducive only to trouble and discomfort. All the evils which attend a redundancy of the lower forms of plants are greatly aggravated, and carried to their highest point, by a similar overgrowth of trees.

In the immediate neighbourhood of the house, moreover, it is particularly desirable that trees and shrubs should not abound. Independently of darkening the windows, they communicate great dampness to the walls, and prevent that action of the wind upon the building which alone can keep it dry, comfortable, and consequently healthy. It is almost impossible for any house to be otherwise than damp, which is too much and too closely surrounded by plantations. Any portions of these, therefore, which may be necessary to shut out the offices or outbuildings, should be placed as far from the walls as practicable, and by no means allowed to be in too intimate contact with them.

Another mode in which the effect of a garden may be marred by too much being aimed at, is in the formation of numerous flower-beds, or groups of mixed shrubs and flowers on the lawn. This is a very common failing, and one which greatly disfigures a place; especially as, where intended only for flowers, such beds usually remain vacant and naked for several months in Flower-beds, too, when introduced in any quantity on a small lawn, have an exceedingly artificial appearance, reminding one of the character common to children's gardens. They interfere sadly with all ideas of breadth, harmony, and repose.

the year.

A still more striking interruption to that beautiful continuity, which does so much in the way of producing size and expression, occurs when unnecessary divisions are introduced into a place. These may be employed to detach parts of a very different character; or, as in the old system of hedging in particular portions, may simply be intended to change the scene suddenly, or furnish certain lines which are probably supposed to accord with the general character of the house. Not only, however, are those

formal divisions mostly inadmissible in a limited space, but all kinds of separating lines, though varied and broken in the most artful manner, must be condemned, as a rule, unless where the place is tolerably large. These remarks of course do not apply to plantations or fences between the kitchen and pleasure garden, or between the latter and the field; nor do they refer to those irregular masses of shrubs or trees which may sometimes be thrown partly across a lawn, to occasion a fresh scene behind them. They are simply aimed at such separating lines, whether of fence or plantation, as might be dispensed with, or for which there is no real necessity; as well as being further opposed to the practice of splitting up a place into minute parts, instead of making it as spacious and airy as possible.

Partly for the reasons just alleged, and also because they introduce ugly strips of a conspicuously different colour on a lawn, a multiplicity of walks, beyond what are absolutely requisite, is very undesirable in a small piece of ground. It is acknowledged that numerous walks conduce to variety; but it is much better to have only that moderate amount of the latter, which can be attained without the sacrifice of simplicity. Walks that have no definite or sufficiently important object, and do not serve to reveal features or aspects of a place that would otherwise be imperfectly seen or entirely lost, are always to be avoided, as destroying the smoothness, continuousness, and extent of a lawn, and producing a poverty and meanness of general effect.

A garden may also be overloaded with a variety of things, which, though ornamental in themselves, and not at all out of keeping with the house, or the principal elements of the landscape, may yet impart to it an affected or ostentatious character. An undue introduction of sculptured or other figures, vases, seats, and arbours, baskets for plants, and such like objects, would come within the limits of this description. And there is nothing of which people in general are so intolerant in others, as the attempt, when glaringly and injudiciously made, to crowd within a confined space the appropriate adornments of the most ample gardens. It is invariably taken as evidence of a desire to appear to be and to possess that which the reality of the case will not warrant; and is visited with the reprobation and contempt commonly awarded to ill-grounded assumption. An unpre

suming garden, like a modest individual, may have great defects without challenging criticism; and will even be liked and praised because of its very unobtrusiveness. But where a great deal is aimed at, and there is much of pretension, whether in persons or things, scrutiny seems invited, incongruities are magnified, and actual merits are passed by unnoticed, or distorted into something quite ridiculous.

Artificial mounds, again, though they may be very useful for some objects, and conducive to effect in certain positions, will, if made too high, or too conspicuous, or too decidedly indicative of the employment of art in their formation, be exceedingly unsatisfactory. If the ground of the neighbouring country be very flat, they will appear all the more out of place; and require adapting with the nicest elaboration. Everything in the shape of a large hillock, or long line of bank, that has no particular meaning, and is badly connected with the general surface, can never present a pleasing character. Some evidence of a sufficient intention or purpose, and a manifest correspondence with the rest of the scene, will be absolutely demanded in all such elevations.

2. Among the more specific features to be repudiated in a small garden, the employment of rockeries or other rustic objects in connexion with the house, or in its immediate neighbourhood, may be next mentioned. Every house must be regarded as a work of art, whatever may be its class or merit; and there would consequently be a want of harmony in associating it with anything composed of or resembling the uncultivated parts of nature. However ingeniously it may be contrived, or executed, therefore, a rockery near a house must be considered radically wrong; and though great skill should be used in adaptation, or a variety of fortunate circumstances eventually awaken interest, these can never wholly atone for a fundamental error. Nor will the way in which such things are generally managed admit of even this extenuation and excuse. And as a retired corner could almost always be found for cultivating rock plants, if desired, those who would steer clear of the vulgarities and irregularities of mere cockneyism will do well not to permit anything of the kind I have been describing around their houses. When composed of such materials as shells, pieces of old porcelain, scoriæ, and other small artificial or manufactured

articles, and interspersed with grotesque-looking busts, heads, &c., as is frequently the case, their use in connexion with houses is all the more to be deprecated. An exception should perhaps be made in favour of placing a few stones, of moderate dimensions, along the base of a house, or other building, when it is raised above the ground level; as these will often have the appearance of forming an appropriate part of the foundation on which the building rests. But they must neither be very numerous, nor extend far from the wall of the structure itself, otherwise their seeming purpose will be shown to be a mere pretence.

As similarly interfering with the harmony of a place, the employment of conspicuous grottoes, towers, summer-houses, or other buildings, within a short distance, or in open view, from the house, when the style differs very widely from it, or is at all extravagant, cannot be defended on any known principle in landscape arrangement; one of the first rules in the art being that things brought into close association should be congruous and kindred in character. If very sparingly introduced, and of a quiet appearance, and partially concealed, architectural objects, though not in the same style as the house, may be occasionally admissible. It is to the staring and grossly peculiar forms sometimes met with in suburban gardens that the chief objection lies. A castellated grotto, for example, with the greatest and most fantastic variety of outline, and numerous turrets, is occasionally to be seen from a house either in the Grecian or Italian form, or from one of those square, common-place erections, from which everything like style is expressly omitted.

3. The practice of planting much immediately around a house is erroneous in other ways than those yet pointed out. It prevents the true proportions, outlines, and details of a building from being properly seen and rightly appreciated. If a house be well designed, it should make a picture of itself, and only require the aid of vegetable forms at a little distance from it, as supports and accompaniments, and to compose a proper background. An occasional tree or plant to balance the several parts, to soften abrupt transitions of outline, to sober and break a glare of colour, or to impart an air of finish and furniture in some cases, may be invaluable; and even a mass of trees or shrubs would often be effective in blinding inferior parts of the building, or cover

« AnteriorContinuar »