The Priory, the Rev. John Craigs, is a small town villa, bordering the River Leam, now being laid out and planted by Mr. Cullis, who has very greatly improved the situation, by raising the surface above the level of the river. There is a descent from the principal floor of the house to the garden, by a flight of steps through a mass of rockwork; a good idea, but not carried out in the best manner, partly from want of proper materials. To have managed this rockwork artistically would have required larger blocks of stone than have been used, and the total omission of scoria, vitrified bricks, and indeed of every species of stone except one. There is not a point in the whole course of ornamental gardening that is so little understood as the formation of rockwork. Most creations of this kind are little better than rubbish heaps, because they appear to consist of all the sorts of stones that are found lying about in the locality, including vitrified bricks, brickbats, shells, roots, &c. No man can form a rockwork that has not the eye of an artist; and, if all the best rockworks in England were examined, it would be invariably found, that each consists only or chiefly of one kind of stone. Compare the rockworks of the last century at Pain's Hill, Ascot Place near Windsor, Fonthill, Wardour Castle, with those erected at the Collseum, London, under the direction of Mr. Gray, and with those of Lady Broughton, at the Hoole near Chester, and of Mr. Wells at Redleaf. In none of these rockworks will there be found a miscellaneous assemblage of materials heaped up; but, on the contrary, blocks of stone of one kind, or imitations of blocks of stone, are ranged so as to assume some natural-looking character of stratification or position. We repeat that no man who has not the eye of an artist should attempt rockwork. The roof of a low portion of the house, looked down on from the library windows, Mr. Cullis has very ingeniously covered with a collection of low-growing saxifrages; and, on the whole, this place does him much credit. [Editor's Note: this may be a property north of Priory Terrace)
