f, A billiard-room, with a rustic veranda, also placed in the Dutch garden, and of which fig.77. in p. 361. is a view. It is raised on a rustic stone basement; and the veranda, which is returned at the angles, is paved with oak chumps, and forms a most convenient place for taking exercise in during rainy weather; a use which harmonises well with that of the billiard-table, which, to an amateur gardener, is chiefly valuable as affording him salutary exercise when he cannot be at work out of doors. All the walks in the Dutch garden are paved with white brick, and edged with stone; and, as they have all a gentle inclination so as to throw off the rain rapidly, they are batter adapted than any other description of path for walking on after a shower; thus permitting a lover of plants to examine them in one of the most interesting states in which they can be seen in spring and summer, that is, when just revived by a shower, and while yet covered with drops of rain. The beds are planted with a very choice selection of herbaceous plants, perhaps unequalled in the country for combining compactness and neatness of growth with beauty and rarity. The walks are 2.5 ft. wide, and the beds 6 ft. wide; so that any person can reach from the margin of the bed to the middle without putting a foot on it. The space beyond the circumferential walk is planted with a collection of all the best azaleas; not crowded together in one mass, as collections of this shrub and rhododendrons commonly are, but in distinct bushes, so that each is covered with flowers from the ground to the summit on every side. To insure this gardenesque appearance, the plants are taken up, reduced, and replanted in fresh peat soil, as soon as ever they begin to grow out of bounds. To this practice, our attention was first directed by the late Rev. Thomas Gamier (see Vol. X. p. 126.), who followed it with all his American shrubs, and, indeed, with his roses, and with all his shrubs that were valuable for the beauty of their flowers; and it cannot be too strongly recommended for imitation.
