Villages, it is evident, ought to be subject to the same system of government as towns; and every thing proposed by the vestry or council of the one, as of the other, ought to be discussed openly and made public by the press. In a few cases, where villages are the property, or are under the control, of an individual who happens to be benevolent and enlightened, we see what can be made of them. An individual of taste, and of an amiable disposition, who happens to be placed in a village, may, even in the present very imperfect state of things, do much in the way of ornamenting and improving it. We have seen a fine instance of this in the village of Bowness on Windermere. Mrs. Starkey, who has ornamented her own house and ground, situated in that village, with many of the finest plants and shrubs, offers seeds or young plants freely to every villager who will plant and take care of them. Mr. Starkey has purchased some ground and widened the village street where it was narrow devoting a marginal space to evergreens and flowers, unprotected by any fence. Mrs. Starkey has also planted and carefully trained laurels, box, and holly, against the church-yard wall. In other situations, where laurels would not grow, she has planted ivy; some chimney tops she has ornamented with creepers, and others she has rendered more picturesque by architectural additions. Mrs. Starkey's own house, which is entered directly from the village street, is ornamented by a veranda which extends its whole length. Independently of woody climbers of the finest sorts, which remain on this veranda all the year, pelargoniums, georginas, maurandias, lophospermums, and other similar plants, are planted at the base of the trellised supports, and flower there during the summer, open not only to the gaze, but to the touch, of every passenger. At the opposite side of the street is another piece of trellis-work, as the fence to a flower garden: this trellis, when we saw it, was partially covered with purple and white clematis, sweet peas, nasturtium, calampelis, pelargoniums, and georginas. These hung over into the street in profusion; and the gardener assured us that no person, not even a child, ever touched a flower or a leaf. Mr. Starkey (a Manchester manufacturer) had not yet arrived there for the season, and the house was in consequence shut up; but of this circumstance the villagers took no advantage. In the gardens of this village, and in part also in those of Ambleside and Grasmere, may be seen many of the new potentillas, geums, lupines, clarkia, &c.; and against the walls, kerria, Cydonia japonica, China roses of different sorts, clematis, and other climbers are not uncommon. The village of Bowness affords a proof that, when the public are treated with confidence, they will act well in return; and that, notwithstanding what has been said of the rudeness of John Bull, he will, when treated like the French and Germans, become as considerate and polite as they are. It is true, the working inhabitants of London and of manufacturing towns cannot be expected all at once to pay the same respect to flowers as the inhabitants of Bowness; but time will remedy this evil.
