Alton Towers. - We had only time to take a hasty glance at what may be called the enchanted valley, and to see a new flower-garden recently tastefully designed and most scientifically laid out by Mr. Forsyth, in one of the courts of the Abbey. The valley, in the time of the late Lord Shrewsbury, had a peculiar charm, from the great number of objects, all of an artificial and singular or grotesque character, in so romantic a situation, and from the trees and shrubs being either small, or cut or clipped into artificial shapes. Whoever recollects this valley, as it was in 1825, so as to be able to compare it in his memory with its present state, must acknowledge that there is a wonderful difference between what it is now and what it was then. Now, the question is, whether this difference is an improvement, or the contrary ? Decidedly, in our opinion, it is for the worse. The gardens have lost one character without gaining another. The trees and shrubs have grown too large for the terraces, walks, walls, and buildings; and, being no longer cut or clipped into shape, they seem to have no accordance with the artificial objects. The whole has the appearance of a scene allowed to run wild from neglect, not from age or decay; and this, notwithstanding the highest keeping of the walks, flower-beds, and every thing that depends on the gardener. When a place becomes wild from total neglect, or from age or decay, we become reconciled to it, as the result of inevitable circumstances, as, in short, the fate of all things; but, when we see one part of a scene in the highest style of keeping, and in a particular character, intermingled with a part of a character totally opposite, we are dissatisfied with the discordance of the impression made in our minds from its want of unity. In theory, we have always been an advocate, where the ancient style of gardening is adopted, of subjecting the trees to geometrical forms, as well as the ground; and no circumstance has ever occurred, within our experience, to convince us that we were practically right, equal to the state of the grounds at Alton Towers. We ascribe no fault to any one for this state of things, which has grown up insensibly with the seasons, and which a person living on the spot is not nearly so likely to be impressed with, as an occasional visiter. The stoves, green-houses, and conservatories were in most beautiful order: in the latter, Mr. Forsyth is introducing borders of Lycopodium complanatum about 6 in. broad along the walks, which have a remarkably good effect, and being the "resemblance" of verges in the open garden, "in some other thing which becomes the image" of them, it may be considered on Q. De Quincy's principle, as truly artistical, and completing the allusion to nature in the open air. These verges are sometimes planted at once in the soil where they are to remain, and at other times on pieces of loam and dung about the length and breadth of a brick, and kept in a glass frame till wanted, when some hundreds of yards of edging can thus be laid down in an hour or two. By means of these bricks, also, repairs can be made momentarily. No edging is better adapted for growing in the shade and in heat. The works connected with the house are going forward under the direction of Mr. Pugin, a most fortunate circumstance for Alton Towers, as far as Gothic architecture is concerned.
