St. Mary's Isle is overgrown with wood, but with wood so beautiful, both as to the individual trees and shrubs, and their disposition in groups and masses, that we do not wonder at there being a reluctance to thin them out. The grounds have, however, one unpardonable fault, and that is, they are deficient in exotics; without which, when laid out in the natural style, there can be no gardenesque. At the time these grounds were planted, the gardenesque and the picturesque may be said to have been the same thing; that is, plantations formed in a picturesque or natural manner were then as characteristic of the grounds of the country residence of a man of taste, as plantations in the geometrical style with straight rows and avenues, characterised similar residences half a century before. Both styles were gardenesque when it was their turn to be in fashion; but neither being at present exclusively the mode, the characteristic of the gardenesque is now the prevalence of exotic trees and shrubs. This change in taste shows a real advance in intellectual enjoyment; because it carries with it the associations connected with genera and species, in addition to those of form, colour, and combination. In the kitchen-garden, at St. Mary's Isle, we found most abundant crops of grapes and peaches; the vine border, as we were informed by our esteemed friend, Mr. Nesbitt, had not been dug or stirred with the fork since we last saw it, twenty-six years ago. [Editor's Note: St. Mary's Isle is a peninsula and contains Paul Jones' Point, named after the man who attempted to capture the Earl of Selkirk in 1788. The Isle On St Mary's Isle contained the seat of the earl of Selkirk, at whose house Robert Burns gave the famous Selkirk grace: " Some ha'e meat, and canna eat, And some wad eat that want it; But we ha'e meat, and we can eat, And sae the Lord be thankit."]
