the windows of a dwelling, or correspond with it in style. A rustic arbour will not, however, be an unfit accompaniment to a building in the Swiss character, or even to some kinds of house Gothic, if its details be accommodated thereto. But it would be entirely inharmonious with a building in the Grecian or Italian manner, which demands more artistic and classical attendants. Everything rustic should, if employed at all, be planted out from the view of such houses. And perhaps the fittest form in general for a garden decoration of this sort will be some truly rustic object, made of rough wood, unbarked, thatched with reeds or heather, and partly covered with climbers, (of which Ivy should be one, because of its evergreen nature,) but partly supported by trees and shrubs, out of the front of which it should appear to spring.

Fig. 201 represents the elevation and ground-plan of a rustic

Fig. 201.

summer-house which I had erected for David Bromilow, Esq., Haresfinch House, near St. Helens, and is made simply of

un-barked larch, and thatched with heather, the interior seat and lower part being lined with dressed and stained deal. It is placed on a mound in the pleasure-grounds. The scale is 8ft. to an inch. The plan, fig. 202, is for a covered seat at the end of a walk in the grounds of J. A. Rose, Esq., of Wandsworth

Common, Surrey. It is of similar material, externally, to the foregoing; but the roof is boarded, and covered with the same wood as the sides. The ground-plan is in fig. 203, and the border on the right is for climbers, the whole being backed up by masses of evergreens. The smaller ornaments outside are to be made of hazel, and the interior is to be fitted up with the same wood, in bars of an inch to an inch and a half diameter, with the bark on.

Neither of these designs is submitted because it possesses remarkable merit, but merely as an illustration of the object of the text. In very rural or picturesque situations, shelter-houses or reading-rooms may take the forms of a rude hut, and can hardly be made too bold or rugged in their character.

This kind of erection requires to be placed by the side of a walk, or at the end of one, so that it may be accessible in all sorts of weather. And it should likewise be put where it will not merely seem a resting or shelter-house, but will command some view of the garden, or house, or country, that appears to demand dwelling upon. A far greater meaning and propriety will thus be imparted to it. And seats of every class, except those which are put beneath trees, solely for the shade, should

Fig. 203.

in like manner have a distinct and palpable object, of drawing attention to points of landscape that invite close examination, beyond the common purpose of supplying rest.

Temporary arbours, formed of a few long branching sticks, fastened into the ground, and drawn together at the top, or with a more or less simple or ornamental frame-work of wooden or wire trellis, and covered with climbing Roses, Ivy, Clematis, Virginian Creeper, the Hop plant, or other climbers, or with some pretty summer plant of sufficient luxuriance and strength, will furnish an agreeable place for retirement and shade during the warmest months; but are not, of course, fit for wet weather or winter. Even a weeping tree, if judiciously attended to at first,

and not made too artificial, will, by having a seat placed under it, often supply a very pleasant bower in summer.

The old-fashioned bowers or arbours, which were frequently composed of Lime trees, (one of which doubtless gave rise to Coleridge's beautiful lines entitled "This lime-tree bower my prison,") are now rarely met with, being dark, damp, and difficult to preserve with any degree of neatness. The tendency of the Lime, however, to bend its shoots to the ground, when unmolested, and strike fresh root there, has occasioned an extraordinary specimen in the gardens at Knowle Park, near Sevenoaks, Kent, the residence of Lady Amhurst. It is thus described in a brief account of the place which I published in

1851.*

"Besides other strange and striking examples, there is an old Lime tree on one of the lawns, the branches of which, having naturally bent downwards towards the earth, have there struck root, and it is now surrounded with myriads of tufted trees of various ages and sizes, covering altogether an immense surface. The parent plant is, indeed, beginning to decay, and some of its numerous progeny are nearly as large as itself. Around the same stem a sort of natural bower is formed, from which there are many little winding avenues to the outside, realising most perfectly the picture of the Banyan, and its

'pillar'd shade,

High overarched, with echoing walks between.'"

10. Statuary, vases, and similar architectural ornaments, are the fitting associates of Grecian and Italian houses, and appear less suitable in relation to every other style. Not that such things as low terrace walls, with or without tracery, pillars for sundials, ornamented with the details of pointed architecture, and even vases or urns of a particular form, and with proper decorations, will be faulty in connection with Gothic buildings, and formal gardens of the same character. Only, the varieties of the Grecian style, with their architectural arrangement of walks, beds, &c., would appear most to correspond with and demand such ornaments as vases, tazzas, urns, pillars, sculptured figures, basins of water, with fountains, and the like things, to carry out and finish their expression and design.

"The Parks, Gardens, &c., of London and its Suburbs, described and illustrated."

STATUARY, VASES, AND OTHER FIGURES.

307

As ordinarily designed, and admitted into gardens, vases are often defective in an almost essential particular,-that of being fit for holding plants. They are commonly either wanting in depth or breadth; and a good Gothic garden vase, or a small

Fig. 204.

porte-fleur, is scarcely obtainable, unless from a special design. It is for this reason I now insert a few sketches. Those in fig. 204, and the last one in fig. 205, are fitted for placing on any wall, or the blocks at top and bottom of any steps, or similarly suitable positions, in connection with a building that partakes of even a shade of the Classic style, and would hold a single flowering plant or evergreen, or a cluster of flowering plants, either with or without pots. In fig. 205, and the two

ㄡ

Fig. 205.

first examples in fig. 206, the Gothic character is aimed at, and the advantage of a good wide open mouth is secured.

The first and third specimens in fig. 205 illustrate a class which is specially needed, and would be particularly useful in

XX

Fig. 206.

gardens; because they could be placed about on lawns, in select positions, where groups of flowers, in low artistic receptacles,