703. The gardens of independent gentlemen of middling fortune vary considerably in dimensions. Few of the kitchen-gardens are under an acre, the flower-gardens may contain a fourth or a third of an acre, and the pleasure-ground from three to ten or twelve acres. The lawn or park varies from thirty or forty to three or four hundred acres. The whole is in general respectably kept up, though there are many exceptions, arising from want of taste, of income, or engagement in other pursuits on the part of the proprietor; or restricted means, slovenliness, and want of taste and skill in the head-gardener. These gardens abound in every part of every district of Britain, in proportion to the agricultural population.
