Theobalds, near Waltham Cross; G. H. Heppel, Esq. -Sept. 27. This is a small place, but displaying on the lawn, on both sides of the house, exquisite taste, and in the kitchen-garden most judicious and successful culture. The house, which is an old cottage, was occupied for many years by W. Wingfield, Esq., a master in chancery, and the grounds which were laid out by him do the utmost credit to that gentleman as an amateur artist. The lawn consists of only two narrow strips of ground, of about an acre each, on two opposite sides of the house, and on these the taste and skill of Mr. Wingfield have been displayed in laying them out. In the one lawn, a broad open glade is preserved down the centre, with a walk surrounding it concealed from the house by shrubs, trees, and small, raised, roundish, distinct beds of flowers which form, as we pass them on the marginal walk, varied foregrounds to oblique views athwart the lawn. In the strip of lawn on the opposite side of the house, there is a straight gravel walk down the centre; and the lawn on each side is covered with beds of flowers, so as, in fact, to constitute this lawn one entire flower-garden. The contrast between the two lawns thus treated, is striking and delightful. The trees and shrubs which form the marginal foreground to the first lawn are of rare and beautiful kinds, and they are admirably disposed, advancing into the lawn and retiring to the walk, and even behind it into the marginal plantation, so as to produce marked, but not formal, prominences and recesses; and, looking at these more in detail, we find an endless variety of groups. The extremity of this lawn is bounded by a public road, and to disguise this boundary it is ingeniously contrived to have two returning walks at the end, one separated from the other by a narrow plantation of shrubs and flowers, in consequence of which the immediate proximity of the boundary is never once suspected by the spectator, who, seeing that there are two walks, concludes that there is no want of room; and, therefore, the idea of a boundary in that quarter never occurs to him. An idea of the position of these two walks is given in fig. 70., and the hint therefore, we trust, will not be lost on young landscape-gardeners. In this lawn, breadth of effect is preserved by no beds being placed down the centre, and the side scenes are varied by the position of the trees and shrubs, and their different kinds producing different sizes, shapes, and characters of foliage. In the lawn on the opposite front of the house the side scenes are also varied by trees and shrubs; but breadth of effect has not been attempted, the lawn being almost equally covered with beds throughout, and the central walk having arches of trelliswork with creepers placed across it at regular distances. The beauty of this lawn, therefore, is not to be tested by the same associations as that of the other lawn; and, while the latter is to be considered as addressing itself to the painter, the former addresses itself to the florist. The beds are for the most part raised, and many of them have edgings of wire or trellis work, naked or covered with ivy, honeysuckle, sweet briar, or other fragrant or evergreen shrubs.
