I venture to offer for publication in the Horticulturist a few hints, having a somewhat local bearing upon the subject of landscape gardening.

It is not my purpose to dazzle your eyes with any light of mine, hitherto hidden under a bushel, but rather to provoke your criticism.

The art of embellishing the grounds of a country residence, holds a very high rank. Compared, indeed, with its productions, there is no work of man approaching so nearly a semblance to the creative power of his Maker. Of all earthly pleasures, this claims to be the most fascinating, while it acknowledges itself capable of becoming the most ruinously expensive.

Although modern writers recognise two grand divisions or styles of this art, the geo-metrical (or ancient) style, and the natural (or modem) style; yet here, as in other fine arts, we find many variations and modifications, or schools of style; as, for instance, where the laws of taste are made to conform to the more stringent code of convenience, economy or utility.

Probably more of this prevails in New-England than elsewhere; for here, more than in other lands, utility has become one of the secular deities of popular worship. In this section of the country, whenever a contest takes place between economical advantage and good taste, the latter is sure to find some apology for making a hasty retreat.

It does not concern us at present to inquire what may be done with a ducal revenue of half a million pounds sterling, as at Chatsworth, in England, or with an almost princely fortune upon the shores of the Hudoon. With scarcely an exception, here, in New-England, operations in landscape gardening are, and are likely to be, hemmed in by limits so narrow as almost to exclude the applicability of the term. From a half acre to some seven or eight acres, is the utmost extent of territory that a genuine Yankee, though a millionaire, will consent to appropriate to merely ornamental purposes. Even after having forced himself to acquiesce in such like "wasteful" embellishments, he does all the work grudgingly, counting, (and if a profane man, cursing) the cost, at every step that his labor progresses.

Again, the taste of New-England people generally, for the beautiful and picturesque in rural scenery, is either vitiated, or totally uncultivated. Hence, the great mass of the people prefer symmetry, stiff formality, straight lines, and the geometrical forms of the ancient or artificial style of laying out grounds. Nearly all our first class places in Yan-keedom, are so arranged. Another evil arises from a vulgar proneness to an ostentatious display of riches. And as costly architecture strikes the careless eye more forcibly than scenery, the man ennobled by quickly acquired wealth, plants his gorgeous palace upon a bleak and bald site, of which the 'surroundings' would be admirably in keeping for a hovel. The whole strength of the proprietor is spent upon house and furniture. Meanwhile the brassy glare of things provokes criticism, and men find themselves incapable of concealing their disgust at three striking incongruities, - the house itself, the flaunting ignorance of the animate nature within it, and the meagre nakedness of the inanimate nature around it.

Some of these places afford a ridiculous exhibiton of the proprietor's insane passion for symmetry Agate or a tree here, another there; the second obviously designed for no other purpose than to match, or geometrically balance the first. And so of every walk, and of every shrub or flower, throughout the place. Every angle is a stiff" right angle; every row is formal and straight; every plant of a row equi-distant, of equal form and equal size. A certain starchy smartness seems to preside over the whole place. Everything is so prim, so square, so sharp, we almost expect to see the house leap from its foundations and fly away. All seems to have for its object a display of the power of art, or rather the superiority of quick-made wealth, to the wisdom which guides the operations of nature. Such, or similar, have ever been the effeorts of the infancy of taste.

Many of our country seats have been planned by the wives and daughters of the proprietors. These estimable ladies, full of that confidence which ignorance inspires, piquing themselves on their exquisite taste in matters of interior decoration, imagine that they are equally competent, (perhaps they are!) to guide and direct the embellishment of out-door scenery. To this source we may trace trees paired off like vases upon a mantel-piece; walks kid out like the entries and passage-ways of a dwelling-house; garden plots with little circles in the middle, suggestive of the idea of a center-table in a drawing room, etc., etc. - all evincing an uncultivated, childish taste, which ever delights in the lowest forms of beauty, preferring whimsical conceits, unmeaning and ridiculous combinations, rather than the infinitely varied, but always graceful manifestations of nature.

In regard to that class of country residences of which the ornamental grounds consist of less than an acre, it is difficult to say much upon paper. Such small places require to be managed with great skill. Into their narrow limits, regular forms will almost force themselves. Lines of walks and trees seem almost to claim to be straight; and it is only by the exercise of patience and skill, that the appearance of art can be concealed. Yet even here, the necessity is not entirely absolute. A refined taste can do much to give an air of natural beauty to a very small residence, particularly where the genius of the place is favorable.

A gracefully curved drive or walk, (from the public street to the buildings,) entering through an irregular group of trees, and forced into its curvature by another little group, will of itself impart to a rural home charms far more pleasing than ten times their cost could infuse into the stiff, old straight-lined primness of the ancient style.

So where a fine cluster of half a dozen elms, oaks, chestnuts, or other beautiful indigenous trees, grow near the sight of the house, the buildings may be located as it were, beneath the protection of these forest guardians, so that the whole place shall at once produce an effect which would otherwise cost the labor of years. Yet few New-England men understand this, and consequently all the beauty of the location falls beneath the axe, and Jonathan " puts up" his shingle palace in their stead, while Mrs. Jonathan fixes her admiring gaze upon its bleak and gawky proportions, and exclaims "My gracious me!"

Even so small a spot as half an acre, may be made one little snug home scene of rural beauty. Abandoning all ideas of a kitchen-garden, to men occupying such places, generally a thing of no pecuniary value, let the entire grounds be filled with groups of ornamental trees, and shrubs, and flowers, upon a ground-work of smooth grass. Let wood bine, honey-suckle and climbing roses, here entwine themselves around a column, and wreath themselves there over a window. Here place a rustic seat, half hid among the shrubbery; there lead a short walk, carelessly curving towards a little vine-clad arbor. How trifling the expense! The cost of a single article of extravagant furniture will defray it. How permanent and beautiful the result! How gratifying, not only to the occupant, but to the passing traveller! And more than that; for whatever tends to cultivate a refined taste, improves the heart, and elevates the better nature of man.

It is for lack of taste, and not on account of a want of room, or deficiency of resources, that we have so little of this in New-England.

Suppose a lot no larger than sixty by a hundred feet. Is it not capable of being made at a most trifling expense, to express features of natural beauty? Certainly; for a bit of green lawn, and one bold group of ornamental trees, will produce this. An eagle's nest on a rocky cliff may be highly picturesque, and yet, together with its surroundings, it costs less, and occupies more limited space, than the smallest habitation of man. A gigantic weeping elm, standing in front of a New-England farm-house, is but a single and not expensive object, while it gives a charm of graceful beauty to the whole place. It is not then, an inexorable law of nature that scenery must be extensive in order that it may be beautiful or picturesque. Taste in designing, skill in executing, are the requisites, and not altogether extent of territory or large pecuniary resources. And yet it is said,"every man can best lay out his own grounds!" Equally well can every man be his own landscape painter, architect, or even tailor! Surely there can be no better evidence of incom. petency than the honest utterance of this assertion!

But if so much can be done within such narrow limits, a great deal more may be expected from those residences where from one to five or six acres are appropriated for that kind of embellishment, to which we not altogether appropriately apply the term landscape gardening.

A man of refinement would in these days, scarcely tolerate a geometrical arrangement of grounds of this extent. Such places admit of a winding carriage-way, leading through a fine lawn studded with groups of trees, irregularly circuitous walks, bordered with various shrubbery; here and there a massive forest tree, standing in its full development singly upon the lawn; a summer-house embowered in the midst of a little retired grove; arabesque forms of flower beds occasionally inserted in the midst of the smooth green of a grass-plot; a vas pretty even when empty, but better over-flowing with water, which it costs not much to bring in a leaden pipe from some neighboring hill: - such are among the charms which almost seem to make a little paradise of home.

We have far too little of this in New-England, nor can we hope for more until the popular taste shall be educated for it. It may, indeed, be said that such labors are extravagant and useless appropriations of money. Vastly more extravagant is it for a twenty-thousand-dollar man to build a ten thousand dollar house; and yet this thing has become common among us. Suppose such men to build five thousand dollar houses, and to expend three thousand in the surrounding scenery - how immensely different the result! and besides, two thousand dollars would then be left to silence the complaints of extravagance! Neither is landscape gardening a useless art. Its productions feast the eye of every passing traveller; they refine the popular tase, and thereby exert a silent and hitherto unappreciated influence upon the morals of society. They constitute a no mean portion of a nation's pride at home, and of her renown abroad.

We have arrived at the end of our sheet, and have just room left to express our earnest top to hear more from youself or others, upon this prolific and very interesting subject. Geo. Jaques.

Worcester, Mass., Nov. 1851.