Grass Lawns.- We observed very few lawns in Scotland that were mown often enough to produce a very fine velvet turf; a circumstance easily accounted for, from the absence of the proprietors, and the slender means left to keep their seats in order. More or less of lawn with smooth turf, and of walks covered with a fine, compact, and bright-coloured gravel, are, with us, essential to the luxury of every country house. When the recently invented mowing machine, which, we are happy to find is coming generally into use throughout England (p. 34.), becomes general in Scotland, we may, however, hope that lawns will be kept as we could wish them. The gravel in the west of Scotland is generally rough, loose, and very unpleasant to walk on. In some places rotten rock, is used as a substitute for gravel, which makes, when powerfully rolled, a very agreeable surface to walk on, though, not one very pleasant to the eye. Where no gravel abounds, naturally, there is always in Scotland a very good substitute, to be found in finely broken stone; for example, in granite, basalt, sandstone, or some variety of bright coloured-schistus; and this broken stone, when firmly rolled, forms an elegant and durable as well as agreeable walk. The use of a heavy roller for compression, and of salt or handweeding for destroying the weeds, instead of loosening the surface by the hoe, as, well as of dried clay in powder to mix with and bind river gravel, seemed to us to be generally wanting. Indeed, the use of a roller, which will give five or six times the pressure which by any possibility can come on a walk or road, is not even generally understood by engineers in England. Our attention was first directed to it by a friend (Mr. Tomalin), who is of opinion, that by the use of very heavy rollers, after making or mending roads, they might every where be rendered as smooth as gravel walks, and as durable as pavement. Burnt clay which contains iron often assumes a beautiful reddish yellow colour, and might form a very good substitute for Kensington gravel.
