shape, little temples or alcoves of wire, covered with climbers, -bowers composed of trees, trimmed on the inside, and open at the top, so that patches of sky and stars are seen as from a kind of well, but through an irregular aperture,-small bell-shaped canvas tents, for a lawn,-architectural objects placed at the termination of every opening from the side of the lawn,-just indicates, also, the uses of more artificial things for the same purpose. Any one can multiply or vary them at pleasure.

16. As the result of a number of principles judiciously combined and elaborated, a place should always possess some more or less decided expression and tone; and, as the character of a garden will usually attach itself in great part to the owner or occupier, so that his own dispositions and tastes will be judged of by the kind of feeling displayed in his garden, it becomes of consequence that this point should be kept continually in view while laying it out.

A garden may be distinguished by its gaiety of tone. This will be principally produced during summer by a variety of showy flowers, by masses of brilliant-flowering shrubs, by standard and other Roses, by a conspicuous flower-garden, and by a variety of purely summer decorations. The shrubs and low trees will be chiefly flowering ones; green-house plants in flower will be freely placed about, or beds of them provided; and everything will have an exotic air. In winter the same tone will be preserved, as far as possible, with variegated evergreens, Laurustinus, Arbutus, Erica carnea, shrubs that bear red berries, and other flowering or gay-looking evergreens, with an abundance of early-blooming bulbs and herbaceous plants, to betoken the first approaches of spring. The whole character of the place should also be light, open, airy; not at all crowded, or overgrown, or overshadowed. The gravel in the walks should have the warm reddish-yellow tint common around London; and the architectural enrichments should be lively, and rather florid than otherwise.

But the expression of a garden may, if required, be that of quietness, a modest, unassuming, medium state, between plain

ness and ostentation. It need not be wanting in beauty or refinement. It may be correctly and even elegantly arranged and furnished; yet there will be no peculiarity of tone on which the eye can fasten. All will be good, but nothing arresting. Flowers will be cherished, though not in extraordinary profusion. Every kind of evergreens will be unreservedly admitted; but there will be no attempt at display, no thrusting forward the evidences of wealth. Taste will be shown in concealing all its manifestations, in the little arts, and ingenious contrivances, and kindly cares, which embellish gardens, as they do life, without ever revealing the machinery of their action, and of which the effect is seen and felt in their results rather than their processes,―in the whole rather than the details. A quiet-looking garden, like a well-educated individual, presents no particular feature that can attract special notice all is smooth, easy, agreeable. And perhaps this quietness of expression is the surest index to refinement and taste; though the latter is not incompatible with some amount of luxury and sprightliness.

Art should be pretty obviously expressed in that part of every garden which is in the immediate vicinity of the house, and may sometimes retain its prominence throughout the whole place. In the latter case, terraces, straight lines of walks, avenues of trees or shrubs, rows of flower-beds, and geometrical figures, with all kinds of architectural ornaments, will prevail. Considerable dignity of character may certainly thus be acquired; and, if well sustained, the expression of high art will be a very noble one. But there are not many places which will bear to be thus treated, and it is less frequently suitable for one of small dimensions. It is, moreover, a very costly style, and requires the lawns to be on the most perfect level, and the grass, beds, and masses to be always in the highest preservation. A warm part of the country, where a rich landscape surrounds the place, will best warrant its adoption. In the near neighbourhood of towns, or in a bleak and ungenial climate, it will appear too bare and cold. A purely town-garden, however, may be treated thus with great effect. Terrace walls, balustrades, flights of steps,

vases filled with shrubs or flowers, and even statuary, will here be most important accessories.

Certain classes of plants seem peculiarly fitted for a garden in which much art is to be displayed. Round-headed standards and upright or fastigate shrubs are singularly appropriate. Rhododendrons, Portugal laurels, Robinia inermis, Roses, and some species of Cytisus, treated as standards, will make admirable lines of plants to flank a square or oblong lawn; and the Araucaria imbricata may likewise be mentioned. Irish Yews, on the other hand, with several species of Juniper, Cypress, and Arbor Vitæ, fit most beautifully into the corners of flowergardens, or points in other plots geometrically arranged; and, where there is space enough, the majestic form of the Cedar of Lebanon and the graceful Deodar will powerfully enhance the expression of art.

There is a possibility of such things as poverty and heaviness constituting the tone of a garden; and every effort should be employed to obviate this. A large proportion of sombre evergreens, a dearth of flowers, or a neglect of finish and keeping, may impart a gloomy character, which is particularly unhappy. A garden seems naturally intended to communicate cheerfulness and pleasure; and this design should never be frustrated by making it look like a cemetery. A great many large trees would, by their shadow, and the destruction of the grass beneath them, conduce to the same fault; and lumpish masses of plantation, with few breaks, little variety of outline, and a scanty addition of detached specimens, would deepen the impression. Massive and inelegant ornaments will only then be wanted to complete its wretchedness.

Poverty of expression is almost worse than heaviness. It conveys the idea of meanness, inattention, indifference,-hardness and narrowness of mind in the possessor, and coldness of heart. Some gardens are thus poor in design, others in their details, and many in regard to their furniture. The first may exhibit a deficiency of thought and taste in adaptation, everything being dashed off or jumbled together, as convenience or

ease might dictate. The second class will denote the absence of taste in execution, and of care to put the finishing strokes to everything. The third section indicates a meagreness of materials,—the commonest description of plants, and a scanty supply of them. The defect of the first will be paucity of invention; of the second, insufficient application; and of the third, dearth of means. Each may exist separately, or all be found together. They are capable of easy remedy; though the last, if it arise from pecuniary causes, must be either endured, or the materials be so selected in respect to their rapidity of growth and showiness, and so artfully disposed, as to be made the best of. Where shrubs or plants enough cannot be had to furnish a place fully, it is better to put them sufficiently thick in smaller masses, than to scatter them over a larger space, in which there will be much bare earth visible.

Instances in which an aspect of poorness arises from the soil or the climate being uncongenial, can be rectified by improving the one, and using such plants only as will thrive in the other. Experience and attentive observation of what succeeds in the neighbourhood will supply the requisite information as to climate. Hereafter, however, a few guiding suggestions will be given with reference to both climate and soil. Poverty in the aspect of a country may be greatly relieved and atoned for by an extra amount of furniture within a place, and by restricting the views from it. A barren and unsightly waste, or common, or moor, can be made to subserve the purposes of art, if only glimpses of it be here and there afforded through masses of rich foliage; for, with such a foreground, its extreme poverty will be neutralised, and become a foil to set off the richness and cultivation inside the place.

17. No garden should be altogether destitute of manner and style, however feebly or indistinctly they may be expressed. Purity and correctness of feeling in regard to any given style are the most important things to be sought after; for it is barely possible to give rules which shall embrace every variety of detail. In little matters, indeed, the properties of different

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styles may be associated, under special circumstances, without any breach of rule; a right appreciation of the spirit of each being alone wanted to enable any one to adapt parts of the others thereto. A close analysation will show that some features are common to two styles, or even to all of them, the great distinctions consisting in larger characteristics.

There are three principal kinds of style recognised in landscape gardening;-the old formal or geometrical style; the mixed, middle, or irregular style, which Mr. Loudon called the gardenesque; and the picturesque. Of each of these I shall offer a brief explanation.

Attached to the geometrical style there is a greater degree of originality, distinctness, and art, than to either of the others. It is the most easily defined, and therefore, probably, the least difficult to practise for a person at all familiar with the simplest rules of architecture. It treats a garden solely and entirely as a work of art. And the forms of nature which it impresses into its service are simply those which have the closest affinity to its own characteristics, and are, in fact, most artificial.

Doubtless the geometrical style is that which an architect would most naturally prefer; for it subordinates everything to the house, and is a carrying out of the principles common to both itself and architecture. A series of straight lines, joining one another at right angles, and of beds in which some form of a circle or a parallelogram is always apparent, or which fit into any regular figure, are, as just before remarked, the leading and most expressive features of this style. Flights of steps, balustraded walls, terrace banks, symmetry and correspondence of parts, circles, ovals, oblong and angular beds, exotic forms of vegetation, raised platforms, and sunken panels, are some of the materials with which it deals.

To apply the style now under notice successfully, the character of the house and the nature of the surrounding land must justify its use, or be brought into accordance with it. Grecian, Roman, or Italian forms of architecture are those in connexion with which it can be most freely adopted. A mere terrace, or series