Munches affords an example of agricultural improvement, combined with great taste in landscape-gardening, as far as the latter art has been called into use. The line of approach, though over a flat surface, is one of the most perfect things of the kind in this part of the country, and the trees seen from it, whether those formerly existing or recently planted, are all in natural combinations; the groups in the foreground varying with every change of the spectator, and all seeming to belong to larger masses; which, in their turn, appear to connect themselves with an interminable forest, which carries the eye to the woods that clothe the sides of the neighbouring granitic mountains. On arriving at the house, we found it unexpectedly close on the bank of a winding river, near which there are some very singular masses of naked granite, which rise abruptly in the lawn, and remind us of the rocks sometimes observed in Chinese drawings: when the place comes to receive its finish, these masses will afford fine opportunities of displaying rock plants, trailers and creepers, with various half-hardy shrubs of rarity or ornament. We were informed by Mr. Maxwell, that, in his gardening improvements, he had received considerable assistance from the hints of his friend, the Rev. Mr. Carruthers of Dalbeattie; a gentleman whose taste and general views, judging from some hours passed in his company, and from his own beautiful little residence, St. Peter's, appeared to us entirely to coincide with our own. The kitchen-garden at Munches was in the most perfect order and keeping: there was a little too much raking on the gravel walk, as at Terragles, for our taste; but not a weed, nor a decayed shoot or leaf, was to be found; the walls were well covered with trees, neatly trained, and the gooseberry bushes judiciously pruned. It is gratifying to see a gardener, who, like Mr. Webster, has been forty years in his situation, not relaxing in any of his duties, and more especially in those of order and neatness. [Editor's Note: Munches was struck by lightening in 1868 and destroyed]
