As Points of Management and Keeping, which we have had to find fault with, more or less, in almost every gentleman's seat we have seen since we left London, we must again recur to the subjects of edges of walks, edges of dug clumps, and the dug surfaces of clumps of shrubs. There are few things more offensive to our eye than the spade marks along the edges of walks and of dug beds or clumps. They ought to be offensive to every eye as well as burs, because these marks constitute lines; and, considered as lines, they are so large as to diminish the apparent size of every other object near them. Their recent appearance, also, in consequence of their being continually fresh cut, is offensive; because it directs attention to the means rather than to the end, and thus prevents the full enjoyment of the scene: just as the scaffolding, if left in front of a newly built house after it was finished, would prevent the full enjoyment of its architectural beauty. In an economical point of view, deep harsh edgings, uncovered with green, are as objectionable as they are in point of beauty; for in spring, in consequence of the alternate rains and frosts of the preceding winter, they will be found to have mouldered down, and rendered the gravel dirty and unsightly. Shallow and covered with a web of grass, neither frost nor rain can have any such effect upon them. We have before given maximums of the depth of edgings in the most dressed scenery; and we shall now add that it is not sufficient that this depth be adhered to, but that the depth, whatever it may be, should be covered with grass close down to the gravel of the walk or earth of the bed. The spade, in short, after the walks and their margins are once properly formed, can never again require to be used, except, perhaps, once a year in the winter time, to cut off any underground stolones of grass which may have found their way from the margin into the gravel of the walk, or the soil of the bed. The grass may always be kept sufficiently short by the verge shears. The first-place, after leaving Manchester, where we saw due attention paid to verges, was Hoole House, Lady Broughton's; the next was the Walton nursery, Mr. Skirving's; and the third and fourth, Mrs. Starkey's at Bowness, and Mr. Barber's at Grasmere. In these places the principle was attended to throughout; at Tatton Park, Hootton Hall, Lathom House, Rufford Hall, Storr's Hall, and a few other places, it was attended to, more or less, in different parts of the grounds, but not in all.
