showed the extent of the injury that they had received. After waiting till the middle of summer, it was found that the lauristinus, sweet bay, Chinese privet, and various other shrubs, were alive to the height of from 3 ft. to 5 ft.; and, after the dead wood was cut out, the plants soon became covered with young shoots and foliage.

The Walks are so laid out and planted as to be sheltered or bordered by evergreens, for the sake of their lively appearance during winter. They are also so contrived as to be shaded from the sun by deciduous trees during summer; while these trees being naked during winter, admit the sun at that season to dry the ground. The walks are laid out in different directions, in order that, from whatever point the wind may blow, at least one walk will be sheltered from it. The greater number are in the direction of north and south; because walks in that direction are best exposed to the sun in the winter season, which is the period of the year in which the proprietor chiefly resides here. It is always desirable, in a small place, that all the walks should be concealed from the windows, except that immediately under the eye; and that, in walking through the grounds, no path should be seen except the one walked on, and that (except in the case of a straight avenue) only for a moderate distance. These rules (derived from the principle of variety and intricacy) have been carefully attended to by Mr. Harrison; and hence the walk from a to b, in the plan Fig. 13, in p. 476, 477, is concealed by raising the turf on the side next the house higher than on the opposite side; while that from c to d is concealed by the bushes and trees at c, and more especially by a large rhododendron at ee. The walk f g h is concealed from the walk i; partly by a swell in the surface of the turf on the side next i, but chiefly by the bushes which are scattered along its margin. At g, there is a clump which prevents any one on the walk i from seeing the line gƒ; and any one on the walk gƒ from seeing the line i. In walking along from f to h, it is clear that the trees and shrubs on the left hand will always prevent the eye from seeing the walk to any great distance. All the other walks through the lawn are concealed in a similar manner; so that a person walking in the grounds never sees any other walk than that which lies immediately before him; and, therefore, in looking across the lawn, he never can discover the extent either of what he has seen, or of what he has yet to see. To form a great number of walks of this sort, and lead the spectator over them without

showing him more than one walk at a time, but taking care, at the same time, to let him have frequent and extensive views across the lawn, and these views always different, constitute the grand secret of making a small place look large.

The walks are filled to the brim with gravel, kept firmly rolled, and their grass margins are clipt, but never cut; because the gravel, being almost as high as the turf, the latter can never sink down, and swell out over the former. This it invariably does when the turf is a few inches higher than the gravel; and, hence, paring off the part of the turf which had projected was originally, no doubt, adopted only as a remedy for the evil, though it is now erroneously practised by gardeners as an evidence of care and good keeping. As much of the beauty of the walk depends upon the beauty of its boundary, the feeling that this boundary is likely to be disturbed every time the walk is cleaned, or the adjoining turf mown, is extremely disagreeable. The freshly pared turf becomes a spot or a scar in the scene, withdrawing the attention from the walk

itself, and from the adjoining grounds, to a point, or rather a line, which is in itself of little consequence, but which, by the paring, is obtruded on the eye, so as to destroy all allusion to stability. We are displeased with the paring of the edges, because it conveys the idea that the walks are not finished, or that they are liable to be disturbed in this way from time to time; and nothing, either in grounds or in buildings, is more unsatisfactory than an apparent want of stability or fixedness. It is as much the nature of the ground to be fixed and immoveable, as it is of trees and shrubs to increase in growth; and, hence, any operation, such as clipping, which seems to stop the growth of the one, is as unsatisfactory to the eye as paring, which seems to derange the fixed state of the other. Would that we could impress this on the minds of all gardeners and their employers!

The Pond is of an irregular shape, so arranged as with the assistance of the island to prevent the whole of it, and consequently its limited extent, from being seen from any one point in the garden. For the same reason, the walk only goes along one side, there being but one point on the western side, viz: where the iron seats are close to the agaves, from which any part of the pond can be seen. The pond is so situated as to form the main feature in the right-hand view from the drawing-room window, as shown in Fig. 3, in p. 417; the wooded island, (which is shown rather too much in the middle in the plan, though, perhaps, not so in reality,) disguising the boundary from that and every other point of view. The bank of the pond on one side is rocky, and nearly perpendicular; while on the other it is sloping, and partly'covered with shrubs. At k in Fig. 13, in p. 477, there is a boat-house, on the top of which are several large agaves, the common, the variegated, and Agàve plicátilis; the tubs containing which are so disguised by rockwork, as to create an allusion to the appearance of these plants in their native habitats. The appearance of these agaves, and also of a large crassula, is indicated in a view of the boat-house, Fig. 17, in p. 483; and it is only from a seat among these agaves that any part of the pond can be seen from this side of it. Had a walk been conducted completely round the pond, and near its margin, the charm of partial concealment would have been entirely lost. The high banks have been formed with earth taken out of the pond, and these have given occasion to a considerable variety in the inclination, as well as in the direction, of the walks. The banks are planted on the

same principle as the open lawn; that is, with trees and shrubs having striking foliage or showy flowers, and with a judicious mixture of evergreens to give the effect of cheerfulness in winter. In the water are two large plants of Cálla æthiòpica Lin., which cover a space of nearly 5 ft. in diameter; they have lived there through ten winters without any protection, the water being 5 ft. deep; and they flower luxuriantly every year. The views across the water, to the house and to the other parts of the grounds, are singularly varied, owing to the winding direction of the walk, and the consequently changing position of the island, and of the trees in the foreground and middle distance. One of these views may be seen in Fig. 19, and others have been already given in p. 455, 471, 473, 483.

The Flower-Garden (25, in Fig. 13, in p. 476, 477,) is laid out, as the ground plan indicates, in beds, everywhere bordered with slate: a flowergarden of this kind, with the walks gravelled, having the advantage of rendering the flowers accessible to ladies immediately after rain, when they are often in their greatest beauty, and, at all events, in their greatest freshness and vigour ; an advantage which is not obtained when the beds are on turf. There are also flower-beds on turf in other parts of the grounds but these are filled with roses, dahlias, and other largegrowing plants in masses, the beauties of which do not require to be closely examined.

III.

Note on the treatment of Lawns.

As a lawn is the ground work of a landscape garden, and as the management of a dressed grass surface is still a somewhat ill-understood subject with us, some of our readers will, perhaps, be glad to receive a very few hints on this subject.

The unrivalled beauty of the "velvet lawns" of England has passed into a proverb. This is undoubtedly owing, in some measure, to their superior care and keeping, but mainly to the highly favourable climate of that moist and sea-girt land. In a very dry climate it is nearly impossible to preserve that emerald freshness in a grass surface, that belongs only to a country of "weeping skies." During all the present sea

son, on the Hudson, where we write, the constant succession of showers has given us, even in the heat of mid-summer, a softness and verdure of lawn that can scarcely be surpassed in any climate or country.

Our climate, however, is in the middle states one of too much heat and brilliancy of sun, to allow us to keep our lawns in the best condition without considerable care. Beautifully verdant in spring and autumn, they are often liable to suffer from drought in midsummer. On sandy soils, this is especially the case, while on strong loamy soils a considerable drought will be endured without injury to the good appearence of the grass. It therefore is a suggestion worthy of the attention of the lover of a fine lawn, who is looking about for a country residence, to carefully avoid one where the soil is sandy. The only remedy in such a soil is a tedious and expensive one, that of constant and plentiful top-dressing with a compost of manure and heavy soil-marsh mud-swamp muck, or the like. Should it fortunately be the case (which is very rare,) that the sub-stratum is loamy, deep ploughing, or trenching, by bringing up and mixing with the light surface soil some of the heavier earth from below, will speedily tend to remedy the evil.

In almost all cases where the soil is of good strength, a permanent lawn may be secured by preparing the soil deeply before finally laying it down. This may be done readily, at but little outlay, by deep ploughing-a good and cheap substitute for trenching-that is to say, making the plough follow three times in the same furrow. This, with manure, if necessary, will secure a depth of soil sufficient to allow the roots of plants to strike below the effects of a surface drought.

In sowing a lawn, the best mixture of grasses that we can recommend for this climate, is a mixture of Red-top and white Clover-two natural grasses found by almost every road side-in the proportion of three fourths of the former, to one of the latter.

There is a common and very absurd notion current, (which we have several times practically disproved,) that, in order to lay down a lawn well, it is better to sow the seed along with that of some grain; thus, starving the growth of a small plant by forcing it to grow with a larger and coarser one! A whole year is always lost by this process-indeed more frequently two. Many trials have convinced us, that the proper mode is to sow a heavy crop of grass at once, and we advise him who desires to have speedily a handsome turf, to follow the English practice,