There are some places where the scenery, as viewed from the lawn front of the house, has little or no natural expression or character, and cannot be made to have any by the proprietor, either in consequence of a flat surface, or of the intervention of other property. There are other residences, in which the view from the lawn front is so confined, that it scarcely can be made to form a whole; and some, where, from offensive objects, the view from the lawn front may be positively disagreeable. In these and similar cases, that is, wherever there is no marked expression, or an indifferent or bad expression, flowers and flower-beds may be introduced in the foreground of the lawn front On the other hand, wherever the view from the lawn front has a decidedly marked expression that is agreeable, whether by its grandeur, its picturesque beauty, or its peaceful rusticity, flowers in the foreground ought to be avoided. As examples of what may be called grand views from the lawn front, we may mention Syon House, in the neighbourhood of London; and, if we recollect the situation correctly, Dreghorn Castle, in the neighbourhood of Edinburgh. As an example of picturesque beauty, none that we know of, in Britain, can be compared to Redleaf, the seat of the late William Wells, Esq.; and, as an example of peaceful sylvan beauty, nothing can surpass Kenwood. There are many places in the neighbourhood of London in which flower-beds are placed immediately under the drawing-room windows, where they would be much better omitted; and others, where, though they may not be required, and are not introduced, they might be so without destroying any expression better than that which they would give; but, on the contrary, creating an interest, which could not be given by any other means.

Bedford Lodge, Camden-hill, may be referred to as an example of the use of beds of flowers on a small scale; and Chevening, in Kent, as a similar example of their judicious employment on a large one. It may be laid down as a general principle, that it is always more or less dangerous to introduce flowers in the foreground, when there is an extensive distance as a termination to the view; and, on the contrary, that where there is little or no distance, and a view limited in extent, flowers may generally be safely introduced. To avoid error in these and other similar matters, a person must either have studied the subject so far as to be able to exercise his reason on it, or he must have a natural feeling or taste for the beautiful in landscape. These remarks will not be without their use, if they induce persons to think before they introduce flowers into particular parts of pleasure-grounds where no flowers have been before; and to examine whether flower-beds already existing might not be better removed.

It has often struck us with surprise, that the proprietors of the finest residences in England, noblemen and gentlemen of high education and refined taste in other things, possessing collections of the finest pictures, and whose eyes must consequently be familiar with all that is noble and beautiful in landscape, should yet commit the laying out of their grounds to their gardeners; or, at all events, permit them to make alterations and additions in whatever relates to flower-beds, flowering shrubs, and rock work; forgetting that the life of the gardener has been devoted to the study of the culture of plants) and not to that of the composition of forms, and their effect in landscape scenery. Hence it is that many of the most beautiful places in England are at this moment disfigured by flower-beds, either placed where there ought to be none, or put down of such shapes and in such a manner, as neither to form a whole among themselves, nor with the other objects near them. How rarely do we find pieces of rockwork, or rocky cascades, in England, which a man who had profited by the study of pictures could take pleasure in looking at? It is clear to us, that the possessors of pictures in general derive very little benefit from them, as regards the improvement of their taste in landscape.

How few landed proprietors can, like the late Sir Uvedale Price, and the late William Wells, Esq., of Redleaf, transfuse the spirit of the finest landscape into the artificial scenery which they create in their grounds? Many country gentlemen are in the habit of having artists at their houses, to take portraits, views, etc.; and these being, in many instances, the guests of the family for weeks together, we often wonder how it happens that they do not point out the grosser errors of want of connection and unity of expression, with which they must so frequently be shocked in passing through flower beds and pleasure-grounds; but we suppose that gentlemen do not think of asking the opinion of a landscape-painter on any point connected with gardening; forgetting that the composition of forms is the business of the landscape-painter, and that his eye has been educated by a long course of study and observation, so that he can detect what is right or wrong at a single glance. There are some proprietors who have studied the subject themselves, or who, fortunately knowing their own ignorance of it, have had the wisdom to consult such artists as Gilpin, Nesfield, &c; and we only wish that those who do without such aid could see their places as they are seen by men of real taste.

To return to the subject of flowers and flowerbeds, we may remark that the flower-garden at Kenwood is the only defective part of the place. It is naturally shaded and confined by a lofty lime-tree avenue on the one hand, and by a rising hill of oak wood on the other; and the area of the garden contains by far too many small trees and shrubs among the flowers: in consequence of this, the turf is almost always damp on the surface; and the flowers come up with slender and etiolated stems, and pale colours. Most of the flower-beds, also, are too large; and they do not combine so as to form a whole. Were it ours, we should clear the whole area, and layout a new combination of figures, chiefly along the centre, planting them solely with flowers, and keeping between them and the boundary abroad margin of turf, so as to insure that airiness, dryness, and sunshine, which are at present so much wanted.

View at Kenwood, from the Terrace Walk near the House.

503. The variety of trees and shrubs in the grounds at Kenwood is not very great; nor is it desirable that it should be so, except in the more secluded parts of the place, where they would not interfere with the general effect Adjoining the flower-garden, and bordering a walk which leads from it to the dairy and farm, a number of new species of ligneous plants have recently been introduced, and a small pinetum planted. This walk, from the botanical variety which it exhibits, forms an agreeable contrast to the main walk en the lawn front of the mansion, though along that walk, also, there are a few very fine specimens of foreign trees and shrubs. Of some of these; such as a cedar of Lebanon, which, in 1836, was 90 ft. high, and which was planted by the celebrated Judge Mansfield, with his own hands, about ninety years before; a larch of the same age and size; and a Robinia Pseud-Acacia; we have, with the permission of the present earl, given portraits in our Arboretum Britannicum. The oak woods, which are probably the oldest about London, are remarkable for being composed almost entirely of Quercus sessiliflora.

Kenwood House from the main Walk in the Bottom, near the Water.

504. The farm and farmery are conducted in the Scotch manner, under a Scotch bailiff, who raises admirable crops of turnips, potatoes, and clover, the soil being a deep sandy loam. Lupinus polyphyllus has been tried here, as an herbage plant, with success.

505. Remarks

Kenwood, being at no season of the year shown to strangers, we regret to think that so few of our readers will have an opportunity of studying there the effect of unity of expression in landscape, and of feeling the powerful impression made by scenery so decidedly simple, rural, and sylvan, in the immediate neighbourhood of London. The contrast is powerfully felt, not only between this place and a crowded city, but between it and the extreme artificialness of most other suburban residences. Gardeners, however, can always visit gardeners, and they may profit from perusing these remarks, and comparing them with the impression made on them by a visit to Mr. Cock-burn, the gardener at Kenwood. One grand cause of the beauty of Kenwood, though it is one that scarcely admits of imitation, consists in the prevalence in it of natural oak woods, and the manner in which they are displayed by the hilly and undulating surface of the ground. The same extent of wood on a flat surface could never have presented more than a side view to the eye of a spectator walking through the grounds; and the beauty of the individual trees in the interior of the wood must, consequently, have been entirely lost.

Whether a wood on a flat surface were a mere strip, or a mile in depth, the effect to a stranger would be the same; but in the amphitheatre at Kenwood, the trees are raised one above another, they are in no part crowded together, and not only display great extent of wood as a whole, but a degree of grandeur and beauty in the individual trees, which they could not exhibit on any other character of surface. Hence the impossibility of conveying an equal expression of naturalness and sylvan grandeur in any place of smaller extent, or in any place (whether large or small) having a flat surface. Another feature of great interest connected with the woods of Kenwood is, that they form part of the natural forest, which in by-gone ages surrounded London, and which the progress of civilization has gradually cleared away; many of the trees are of the British Chestnut Oak (Quercus sessiflora), which is now seldom found growing in a wild state in Great Britain, the common British oak having nearly superseded it.