"Mere rocks, unless they are peculiarly adapted to certain impressions, may surprise, but can hardly please; they are too far removed from common life, too barren and inhospitable, rather desolate than solitary, and more horrid than terrible. So austere a character cannot be long engaging if its rigour be not softened by circumstances, which may belong either to these or to more cultivated spots; and when the dreariness is extreme, little streams and waterfalls are of themselves insufficient for the purpose: an intermixture of vegetation is also necessary, and, on some occasions, even marks of inhabitants are proper.

"If such a scene occurs within the precincts of a park or a garden, no expense should be spared to meliorate the soil, wherever any soil can be found. Without some vegetation among the rocks, they are only an object of curiosity or a subject of wonder; but verdure alone will give some relief to the dreariness of the scene, and shrubs or bushes, without trees, are a sufficiency of wood. The thickets may also be extended by the creeping plants - such as pyracantha, vines, and ivy - to wind up the sides, or cluster on the tops of the rocks; and to this vegetation may be added some symptoms of inhabitants, but they must be slight and few: the use of them is only to cheer, not to destroy the solitude of the place; and such therefore should be chosen as are sometimes found in situations retired from public resort. A cottage may be lonely, but it must not here seem ruinous and neglected; it should be tight and warm, with every mark of comfort about it, to which its position in some sheltered recess may greatly contribute. A cavity also in the rocks rendered easy of access, improved to a degree of convenience, and maintained in a certain state of preservation, will suggest similar ideas of protection from the bitterest inclemencies of the sky, and even of occasional refreshment and repose.

But we may venture still further. A mill is of necessity often built at some distance from the town it supplies; and here it would at the same time apply the water to a use, and increase its agitation. The dale may, besides, be made the haunt of those animals - such as goats - which are sometimes wild and sometimes domestic, and which, accidentally appearing, will divert the mind from the sensations natural to the scene, but not agreeable if continued longer without interruption.

"These, and such other expedients, will approximate the severest retreat to the habitations of men, and convert the appearance of a perpetual banishment into that of a temporary retirement from society.

"When rocks retire from the eye down a gradual declivity, we can, by raising the upper ground, deepen the fall, lengthen the perspective, and give both height and extent to those at a distance. This effect may be still increased by covering this upper ground with a thicket, which shall cease, or be lowered, as it descends. A thicket, on other occasions, makes the rocks which rise out of it seem larger than they are. It* they stand upon a bank overspread with shrubs, their beginning is at the least uncertain, and the presumption is that they start from the bottom.

"Another use of this brushy underwood is, to conceal the fragments and rubbish which have fallen from the sides and the brow, and which are often unsightly.

"Rocks are seldom remarkable for the elegance of their forms; they are too vast and too rude to pretend to delicacy; but their shapes are often agreeable, and we can affect those shapes to a certain degree - at least we can cover many blemishes in them by conducting the growth of shrubby and creeping plants about them. For all these purposes mere underwood suffices; but for greater effects larger trees are requisite. They are worthy of the scene, and not only improvements but accessions to its grandeur. We are used to rank them among the noblest objects of nature; and when we see that they cannot aspire to the midway of the heights round them, the rocks are raised by the comparison. A single tree is, therefore, often preferable to a clump; the size, though really less, is more remarkable; and clumps are, besides, generally exceptionable, in a very wild spot, from the suspicion of art which attends them. But a wood is free from that suspicion; and its own character of greatness recommends it to every scene of magnificence.

"On the same principle, all the consideration which can be should be given to the streams. No number of little rills are equal to one broad river; and, in the principal current, some varieties may be sacrificed to importance. But a degree of strength should always be preserved. The water, though it needs not be furious, must not be dull; for dignity, when most serene, is not languid; and space will hardly atone for want of animation.

"Inhabitants furnish frequent opportunities to strengthen the appearances of force by giving intimations of danger. A house placed at the edge of a precipice - any building on the pinnacle of a crag - makes that situation seem formidable, which might otherwise have been unnoticed. A steep, in itself not very remarkable, becomes alarming when a path is carried aslant up the side. A rail, on the brow of a perpendicular fall, shows that the height is frequented and dangerous; and a common foot-bridge, thrown over a cleft between rocks, has a still stronger effect. In all these instances the imagination immediately transports the spectator to the spot, and suggests the idea of looking down such a depth; in the Inst that depth is a chasm, and the situation is directly over it.

"If the body of the rock is intended to be raised much above the ground level, a quantity of soil and rubbish should be carried into the centre of the space. This soil, besides serving to support the rockwork, will also form a border for the plants to grow in. Having at hand plenty of large rough stones, broken bricks, or stony rubbish of any kind or colour, proceed with these to imitate the form of natural rock as nearly as possible. Rough, bold, angular projections, and deeply-formed chasms, are the principal features in natural scenery which please us most. A rock, with a flat unbroken surface, whether horizontal or perpendicular, presents too much sameness to be pleasing to the eye: therefore, in imitating nature, the projections should be varied and bold, and unless raggedness and intricacy form principal features in its composition, it will lose much of its effect. If the rock-work be on a large scale, it should not be one continued line, but broken at intervals, in one part lost beneath the surface of the earth, and again rising in another part and resuming its sinuous form.

"So far there is little difference between this and the common method of making artificial rock. When, however, every stone has been arranged to suit the eye, the interstices between them are to be filled up with any kind of rough mortar. Of course fissures, and similar places intended for the plants which are to cover the rock, must be left open, so that the roots may penetrate to the soil beneath the stones. The next operation is to daub the whole mass over with Roman cement. For this purpose the latter should be mixed with water until it is of the consistence of thick paint, in which state it may be applied to the stones with a large painter's brush. The spaces between the stones having been filled with rough mortar prevents the cement from being wasted. The thickness of the latter on the stones need not be more than the eighth of an inch: it will unite the whole into one mass; and rock-work, thus constructed, is beyond all comparison far more natural than that made in the usual way. It has none of that disjointed appearance which usually accompanies rock-work made without cement.

After a few months' exposure to the weather, rock-work thus formed (if skillfully made) cannot without careful examination be distinguished from a natural mass; it will soon cover all but the most prominent parts. If the cement be of a colour too light, which, for some situations, may be the case, a little lamp-black, or soot, may be mixed with it. Care must, however, be taken that no substance which may make the cement more porous is used, otherwise it will peel from the stones after a hard frost. For the benefit of those who are not accustomed to using cement, I may mention that no more should be moistened at once than can be used in a short time. If the cement be good it will quickly harden, and will then be in a manner useless.

"In preserving cavities in the rock for plants, care should be taken that no places are left in which the water may lodge, or, in frosty weather, the ice, by expansion, would split and peel off the thin crust of cement, or lowest part of them, communicating with the soil beneath the stones, so that the water may drain off.

"In making artificial rock for waterfalls, or other constructions, where the cement may be constantly exposed to the action of water, the best water-cement should be used. Any preparation that does not quickly indurate under water, will, in a short time, be washed away, and leave nothing but the bare stones."- Whateley.

Plants suited for Rock-work are: - Rhododendron ferrugineum; R. hirsu-tum; Arctostaphylos Uva ursi; Cha-mceledron procumbens; Sedum rupes-tre; S. Forsterianum; S. populifolium; S. villosum; S. hexangulare; Arbutus phillyreaefolia; A. pilosa; Mahonia aqui-folium; Ramondia pyrenaica; Soldanella alpina; Androsace villosa; Crydalis nobilis; Phlox ovata; P. subulata; P. nivalis; Vinca minor, florepleno; Campanula pumila; Gentiana verna; Dryas octopetala; Digitalis lutea; Sibthorpia europaea; Arabis alpina; Draba azoides; Premanthes purpurea; P. Muralis; Antennaria plantaginea; Gnaphalium arenanum; Polypodium vulgare cam-bricum; P. dryopteris; Onoclea sensi-bilis; Asplenium adiantum nigrum; Pteris caudata; Adiantum Capillus veneris; Aspidium rigidum; A. Lon-chitis.