TREES AS ACCOMPANIMENTS TO BUILDINGS. 213

sorts of ornamental low trees and shrubs will be preferable for the immediate vicinity of Gothic houses. Portugal Laurels, common Laurels, different kinds of Magnolia, Ivy, Hollies, the Yew for its dark sombre colour, the Arbutus, Aucuba, &c., will all be to some extent harmonious. And commoner and less exotic plants may generally be brought closer to a Gothic house without injuring its effect, than they can be to any more classical structure. The latter seems to require associating with more foreign species. And the same remarks will hold good with respect to gardens treated in either the classic or irregular style. Rarer and more unfamiliar forms are required for formal gardens. Those in the flowing or English manner will be fitly supplied with a mixture of both common and valuable varieties.

Trees can, without impropriety as to appearance, be placed nearer to a Gothic than a Grecian house. Gothic architecture is rather improved by a frame-work of trees; Grecian only just tolerates them. With either style, however, the sudden dip of the building to connect with it a low wing, or the equally abrupt rise to form a tower, may often be softened with advantage by the introduction of a good and appropriate tree in the angle, if this does not cover any window or other detail of consequence. In the same way, a suitable lower plant or shrub in a deep angle of the building, or at a very bare corner of it, will sometimes divest it of a cold and naked appearance, and adorn rather than deface it. If one corner of a building stands higher above the level of the garden than the other, as will sometimes be the case on sloping land, it will particularly require help from a good large shrub or group at the corner that rises most out of the earth, to give it the requisite balance.

The high ends of buildings frequently demand some kind of plants to support them, and take off the hardness of their edges. No building should appear altogether naked and alone, but form a constituent part of a landscape. If the lines, therefore, be not duly carried down in the erection itself, and blended with those of the ground,—a thing which can very rarely be accomplished,— the effect of connexion should be attained by accompanying trees. Where a house is placed on a knoll, mound, or other kind of elevation, some such assistance becomes all the more essential. But the trees need not in all cases approach closely to the end of the building; as enough of union of lines and balance of

parts may mostly be produced by placing them at a little distance from it.

No subject, perhaps, is less studied by landscape gardeners, or occasions more alarm in the mind of an architect, than the necessity that exists for assisting the effect of houses by the felicitous introduction around them of a few trees or shrubs at the right points. Without some such help, a house might almost as well be in a town as in the country; and the most artistic combination of parts will fail to satisfy a tasteful observer, unless there blend with the building, at certain intervals, larger or smaller patches of green foliage. Even a mansion of the highest and most classical kind will not be exempted from this rule; as any one may perceive who examines the principal or entrance front of what is probably the most magnificent pile of its class in this country-Blenheim. Unquestionably, the architect has done everything to vary and enrich the elevation, which is grand and palatial to the last degree; but for want of a little daring in the treatment of the entrance-court, so as to obtain such trees and shrubs as should, without marring the design, subdue the glare of the masonry, and mingle appropriately with its outlines, the entire effect, unless from some point in the park where the Beech trees of the latter can be brought into partial connexion with the palace, is cold, harsh, and intensely unsatisfactory.

The same remark (if I may venture to comment for a moment longer on so truly noble and national a production) will apply to the bridge across the lake on the approach to Blenheim. Here, the happy audacity which raised such a lofty and gigantic work, and which must have braved an immense amount of probable temporary criticism as to its height and size, with the far-seeing consciousness that nothing lower could ever form such a standpoint for exhibiting the mansion, park, and lake to advantage, while nothing smaller would fitly unite with the other grand features of the place; has had no seconder in the accompaniments to the bridge, so that its outlines remain, in many respects, rude and hard as at first, while a few evergreen trees and shrubs would speedily soften away and remedy all the defects, and cause the bridge to seem, as it were, to be growing out of the banks on either side.

It may possibly be a legitimate subject of doubt whether the yet more majestic residence of our Sovereign at Windsor,

picturesque and princely as it is universally acknowledged to be, and deriving so much of artistic finish from the variety in the height and form of its towers, from the expansion of its dependent parts in the direction of the town, and from the trees (out of the tops of which it appears to rise) on the precipitous slope at its northern base, would not materially gain in interest and in pictorial power, if not in dignity, by the interfusion (so to speak) of a few venerable Elms or Oaks among its tamer parts, and about its abrupter corners; although it is admitted that a structure of such breadth and magnitude, crowning a rocky steep, actually requires the aid of trees less than almost any other kind of edifice or position that can be imagined.

4. To produce strong and striking effects in a garden, there must be not merely a tolerably varied collection of plants, well mixed up together, and disposed so as to give variety and contrast, but groups of particular kinds should be planted in prominent places, that occasional broader masses of a peculiar form or colour may be obtained. From three to six or even eight specimens of some showy kinds may thus be planted in an irregular group, at any jutting point in a bed, or on some swell of a mound, and will create a very striking impression by their foliage or flowers. They should be placed near enough to each other to grow into a thicket, without injury to any of the plants, that only one dense mass of heads, and none of the individual stems may be seen, and that the effect may be more like what one immense specimen would yield.

This system of arrangement, combining the advantages of massing plants of one sort without any of its evils, is well worthy of being more freely pursued than it is at present. A group of pink or crimson Rhododendrons of one kind, that will bloom all at once; of Berberis aquifolium, for both flowers and fruit; of the red-flowering Currant, which is all the gayer for appearing so early; of Laburnums, the English and Scotch varieties being mixed; of common Lilacs; of the Cydonia japonica, with only about three plants; of yellow or mixed Azaleas; of any bright or dark-flowering sort of Rose; of Daphne pontica, for its form and scent; or even of common Dogwoods, which are particularly attractive in autumn, when the leaves begin to change colour, and during winter, when their blood-red branches have the effect of flowers at a distance, and are well fitted for clothing small

islands; of Tamarisk, overhanging the steep face of a mound; of Broom, in the more open part of an outside plantation; of Savin, Heath, or Cotoneaster microphylla, or Gaultheria shallon, where a tuft of dwarf plants is wanted; and, not to multiply examples further, of any variegated, or pale-green, or silveryleaved variety that does not grow too large; will add a novel and most inviting feature to a garden, and make it very conspicuous at particular seasons.

For the still lower tribe of plants, and even for annuals, the plan is fully as suitable. Every one is now aware what splendid displays are created by the various kinds of half-hardy plants with which gardens may be decorated in masses during summer, Some things, in fact, which would, when solitary, be almost contemptible, acquire a marked showiness if collected into a group. And many annuals, that are straggling and poor as individual objects, become, in broad patches, (which is the best way of growing them,) highly ornamental and handsome.

5. When planted on the sunny side of a garden, or of any part thereof, trees (and shrubs more feebly, and for a shorter period) project a variety of shadows, which an artist would rightly esteem some of the most decided beauties of a landscape. Light and shade is what an architect of sound feeling will always aim to procure in the exterior of his building; and the plan that secures a due admixture of these will be most praised and admired, other things being equal. In a garden scene, too, although this is a matter very little considered, an immense deal of the beauty will depend upon the nice arrangement of parts to secure these.

Open bursts of sunshine are not more essential, and are generally less effective, than shadows in a landscape. It is during showery weather, when gloom and sunlight are continually succeeding each other, and Nature is shrouded in dulness one moment, but brilliantly illumined the next,-when the outlines and motion of the clouds are faithfully pictured on the earth as they hurriedly sweep over hill and valley,--that beautiful scenery becomes far more lovely and pleasing. And there must be a compounding of the same elements of light and shade in a garden to give it its last finish.

It will, however, be chiefly on the west and south-west sides of a place that the shadows will be most interesting. The sun is too high in the heavens at midday to occasion any but the

smallest shadows, and those only to the very tallest trees. It is towards evening, when the stillness and softness of the air, or the glory of the descending sun, invite to a closer communion with Nature, that shadows will be most conspicuous, and most rapidly changing. The lines or grouping of western and southwestern plantations should be particularly arranged with reference to their shadows; that these may be varied, but pleasingly rounded, and softly mingled. And as the shade from everything becomes exaggerated in its dimensions the lower the sun descends, there will be the more necessity that the upper lines of the plantations under notice shall be gentle, elegant, and finished; while the plants should rarely be very large, or their shade will cover the whole garden towards evening, and lose its effect. If the full light of the sinking sun can be let in uninterruptedly through two or three openings on to the lawn, the result will be a more chequered, and therefore a more beautiful one. There may be a large amount of pleasure drawn from this source by a devoted student.

Other sides of a place, though of less consequence in regard to shadows, will not be unproductive of them. On the south margin, it must be a pretty high tree that will produce any very manifest effect; and large trees can be very little tolerated in that quarter. More than two or three, at distant intervals, would be decidedly undesirable. Further east, a little may be done; but it must be set about cautiously, for fear of creating injurious shade. All the specimens and groups on a lawn will, at some period of the day, give forth partial shadows, and this will be one of the advantages of varying their outlines and arrangement. As a series of only little patches of light and shade would be wearisome and distressing to the eye, this shows the necessity of having a good open glade of lawn, entirely free from plants, in another and vivid light.

6. To furnish the means of growing to perfection the very charming tribe of climbing plants, beyond the mode of training them to poles, there will occasionally be places in a garden where a small covered way, formed of wooden or wire trellis, can be erected, and rendered both ornamental in itself and fitted for supporting a few choice Roses, &c. Such an object may either be attached to the front of a wall, and be open only at one

side, having a close roof,-when it will be a good means of