Mr. Flooks's house is a model of comfort, convenience, and arrangement within, and the external elevation is plain, but in perfectly good taste. In the grounds his object has been to display specimens of different descriptions of garden ornaments, and more especially of the Italian open parapets formed by tiles. The first hint for these Mr. Flooks took from Lord King's, at Oakham Hall, near Cobham, noticed in a former volume; but he has greatly varied them in consequence of having his own brick and tile works, in which he can have a variety of forms moulded at pleasure. Some of these parapets are 9 in. in thickness, and others only 4 in. The appearance of the latter is very handsome, and the cost in this neighbourhood does not exceed 6d. the superficial foot. The cost of the others varies from 9d. to 1s.; the coping, in these cases, being brick and tile; but when the coping is of stone or composition the expense is greater. Mr. Flooks having introduced this description of parapets, and also grass steps to terraces, they are at present quite the fashion in this part of the country; and, as generally happens in similar cases, they will no doubt be often applied in situations where they are by no means appropriate. This, however, only shows the natural love which exists of variety and beauty, and it ought to afford hints, both to architects and their employers, to discriminate between what is suitable and what is unsuitable, and for this purpose to store their minds with ideas on the subject. For example, a gentleman may have, a Gothic house, like the beautiful villa erected at Wilton for Lord Pembroke's steward, and may wish, after seeing those of Mr. Flooks, to have some garden fences of an architectural character. His first impression would doubtless be to imitate them; but, on second thoughts, it would occur to him, that their appearance would not be in harmony with the ornaments of his house; in other words, though connected locally, they would be disconnected architecturally and artistically, and would not indicate that unity of system, or of working of the same mind, which is necessary in the productions of every art to constitute a whole. What is he to do then? Either invent forms corresponding with those displayed in the ornamental part of his house, or have recourse to the established forms of that particular variety of Gothic architecture in which it is built. Mr. Flooks has covered his walks with a gravel almost as beautiful as that of Kensington, which he has been at the expense of bringing from a considerable distance, with a spirit which we wish we could see greater evidence of among his wealthy and titled neighbours.
