In many places in Scotland, we found no flowers on either front; and in several, as many on the entrance front as on that of the lawn: but what we disliked the most was that which we frequently met with, viz. a degree of coarseness of surface, rough grass, and a total absence of flowers and fine shrubs all round the house; while there was a flower-garden, and a portion of highly kept lawn at some distance from it, in a shrubbery, or near the kitchen-garden. This we consider both as a want of taste, and a great waste of expense, because no adequate effect is produced. No polish and refinement, no exertions of ornamental gardening in distant parts of the grounds, will ever compensate, in our opinion, for the want of these qualities near what ought to be the centre of all art and refinement, the house. It is not that we disapprove of detached flower-gardens or other ornamental scenes in different parts of the grounds; on the contrary, in large and extensive places where every thing else is in due proportion, we approve of these, as inducements to walk out and examine them, and as adding to the magnificence of the whole; but we can never approve of one of these gardens or scenes in a place where the lawn in front of the house is neglected. Next to utility and convenience, what painters call effect, or what some would call display, with us is every thing.
