Places for preserving tools and depositing rubbish, and means for obtaining water when required, back paths or roads to the kitchen and offices, space for drying linen, if it can be afforded, lengthened walks round a paddock for exercise, with an arbour or summer-house in it for shelter from showers or storms, and for reading and retirement at other periods, are some of the various conveniences which should be taken into account in laying out a place; especially as many of them cannot be obtained at all unless they are secured in the first instance. 4. In order still further to attain the full advantage of convenience, to economise space and labour, and to make everything appear orderly and well-contrived, compactness of arrangement will be particularly influential. Nothing tends more to exhibit a want of design, or to produce general slovenliness, than a scattered and ill-considered disposal of the different parts of a place. Each department that is connected with another—and all should be but parts of a combined whole-ought not merely to adjoin but to fit into its neighbouring department, so that no space may be lost, and no untidy corners created, and no unnecessary expenditure in the erection of walls or other divisions occasioned. In fact, each wall or fence in the interior of a place should, if possible, be made to serve a double purpose, and act as a boundary to two separate compartments, or form a part of two distinct sets of building. Thus, the wall on the north side of a kitchen-garden may be made to constitute one of the fences to a house-yard, a garden-yard, a stable-court, and even a small farm-yard; while the back of such a wall might also be used to support various low lean-to sheds, that may happen to be needed in either of these yards. 5. Few characteristics of a garden contribute more to render it agreeable than snugness and seclusion. They serve to make it appear peculiarly one's own, converting it into a kind of sanctum. A place that has neither of these qualities might almost as well be public property. Those who love their garden often want to walk, work, ruminate, read, romp, or examine the various changes and developments of Nature in it; and to do so unobserved. E All that attaches us to a garden, and renders it a delightful and cherished object, seems dashed and marred if it has no privacy. It is a luxury to walk, sit, or recline at ease, on a summer's day, and drink in the sights and sounds and perfumes peculiar to a garden, without fear of interruption; or of dress, or attitude, or occupation being observed and criticised. Something more, however, than mere privacy is involved in the idea of snugness. It includes shelter, warmth, shade; agreeable seats for rest, arbours for a rural meal, and velvety slopes of turf, overshadowed or variously chequered by foliage, to recline upon. A room that may fitly be called snug is small in its dimensions, and rather amply furnished, with its window not open at any point to the public gaze. A garden, likewise, to deserve the same epithet, should have its principal or subordinate parts of rather contracted limits, be furnished somewhat liberally with tall-growing plants and trees, which will produce some degree of shade, and present an air of comparative isolation. Where there is sufficient extent, it is probably better to have one or more small nooks, or partially detached gardens of a particular kind, to realise something of both snugness and seclusion, and give the leading and broader portions of the garden a more airy and open character. Still, in any case, unless it be purely for show, a certain amount of privacy ought assuredly to be sought after. And the more thoroughly it is gained, the more pleasurable to most persons, and the more accordant with good taste, will be the entire production. 6. Unity and congruity of parts are, probably, among the easiest things to attend to, yet the most seldom attained. Curved walks along the front of a house,-figures, vases, and other architectural ornaments in a different style to that of the principal building,-straight walks passing off obliquely from other straight ones, or even curved lines issuing from or crossing straight ones at an oblique angle,-a mixture of general styles of treatment,-gay roses or honeysuckles twining around funereal pillars or urns, the most sombre-looking plants placed against a building in a florid style of architecture,-the commonest greenhouses tacked on to structures of some pretension as to correctness and purity of manner;-these, and a variety of similar incongruities, are most abundant and conspicuous in gardens. Taste, on the other hand, demands that there should be a perfect harmony between the various portions of a garden, both with respect to each other and to its buildings. Every structure ought to have its appropriate garden fittings, to impart or preserve to it its proper expression. The part just around a house should be treated somewhat architecturally or formally; and the transitions from this to the more distant portions of a garden, and from these again to the field, and so on to the surrounding country, be gradual and almost imperceptible. And where any sort of rusticity or picturesqueness is wished for, or some other feature essentially distinct from those which characterise the garden generally, such pieces ought to be separated from the rest by a well-marked though inartificial division, so that the two are not seen together. Connexion and order are the laws of universal nature, and can seldom be safely infringed by art. Contrast, it is true, may sometimes be admitted into a garden, and will occasionally be very effective; but it is available chiefly in small matters of detail, such as the colours of leaves and flowers, the habits of plants, their heights, &c. Harmony in other things is of far more consequence. It is the only true foundation of greatness or excellence. To have several notable characteristics, or to perform many things well, falls to the lot of very few individuals ; and a garden that affects to have more than one marked expression or tone, is too frequently a failure. Unity, however, and a well-balanced and well-blended adjustment of parts, impart to it a weight of character and a dignity of aspect which are sure, in the end, to win for it esteem. That which is really good and tasteful, while it is certain to obtain the approbation of those capable of judging it, will quite as surely at some period, however remote, secure the suffrages of the multitude. An inferior object, on the contrary, may please for a time, but will speedily grow distasteful. It is only for true beauty that a lasting and general relish is excited. 7. Isolation of parts and ornaments is the converse of connexion, and would be quite alien to all beauty. Garden decorations mostly require supporting. Nakedness is commonly repulsive to right feeling in art drapery, furniture, and accompaniments being demanded. The bare outline of a plantation, or a solitary specimen or group, will appear harsh and out of joint. Openings or glades, that are perfectly simple and unfurnished, also present a certain hardness and severance of parts. They look like mere gaps. It is in the artistic distribution of plants and groups, so as to do away with continuity of lines, and blend perceptibly each individual object with all the rest, that the highest power of a garden or other scene will reside. 8. That a palpable attention to symmetry should distinguish gardens laid out in a formal manner, no one will now be forward to dispute. The ridicule conveyed in the well-known couplet,― "Grove nods at grove, each alley has a brother, is, though widely circulated, and often revived, by no means to be admitted as the "test of truth." Such gardens would be nothing unless the nicest balance was preserved. Symmetry and regularity are their very essence, as well as that of architecture, on which they are founded; for in good models of the most irregular buildings, the truest adjustment of parts is strictly observed. There should also be a beautiful balance maintained, however subtle and disguised it may be, in the proportions of every garden, whatever be its style. Not that the same description of objects, placed in similar positions, should be found on the opposite sides of gardens, but that their general effect should be that one side is, as a whole, about equal to the other in height and breadth; or, at least, that such an impression should remain on the mind of any one glancing over the two. 9. Gradation, or the agreeable transition of one part of a garden into the other, without any decided breaks, or marked interference with harmony, should always be striven after, as it will enable the designer to use parts of different styles and a variety of ornaments, and yet preserve enough of consistency and smoothness. But the gradation to which I would most directly advert is that which treats the different parts of a place as so many ascending steps, until the highest and best points are reached. As, in a house, the exterior should be but little decorated, the vestibule or porch plain, the hall only a trifle more ornate, and the various rooms more and more enriched, till the saloon or drawing-room, which is the most showy of all, is arrived at; so, in the out-door domain, the exterior look, while unexceptionable, should be quiet and by no means attractive, the approach private and not adorned with flowers, the pleasure garden a little more enriched, and the front of the house, with its lawn and flower-beds or flower-garden, be in the very highest style of art and beauty. It may, perhaps, be impossible to develop this system of arrangement fully, in consequence of the shape, or size, or peculiar accessibility of the land, or from other local considerations. But the more thoroughly it is inwoven into the plan of the place, the more perfect and pleasurable will that place be made. Where the best parts of a garden are open to every one who approaches from the outside road to the house, there is not merely no privacy, but nothing to mark any distinction between the treatment of friends and casual callers. All the delight of showing the former round the garden, and revealing its more sacred and elaborate features, is completely sacrificed if they can see them before reaching the house. In this respect, a garden should be a sort of practical climax. 10. A great deal of ingenuity is often demanded to give apparent extent to a place that is, in fact, extremely small. There are several ways of contributing to the attainment of this. Attention to some of the points already discussed will partly accomplish it. If a garden be simple in its plan, there |