I have therefore frequently been the means of restoring acres of useless garden to the deer or sheep, to which they more properly belong. This is now carrying on with admirable effect at BULSTRODE, where the gardens of every kind are on a great scale, and where, from the choice and variety of the plants, the direction of the walks, the enrichment of art, and the attention to every circumstance of elegance and magnificence, the pleasure-ground is perfect as a whole, while its several parts may furnish models of the following different characters of taste in gardening: the ancient garden, the American garden, the modern terrace-walks, and the flower-garden: the latter is, perhaps, one of the most varied and extensive of its kind, and therefore too large to be otherwise artificial, than in the choice of its flowers, and the embellishments of art in its ornaments. Flower-gardens on a small scale may, with propriety, be formal and artificial; but in all cases they require neatness and attention. On this subject I shall transcribe the following passage from the Red Book of VALLEY FIELD *.
*["Although I have never seen VALLEY FIELD, myself, yet it flatters me to learn, that, under the direction of my two sons, by taking advantage of the deep romantic glen and wooded banks of the river which flows through the grounds, and falls into the Frith of Forth at a short distance from the house, an approach has been made, which, for variety, interest, and picturesque scenery, may vie with anything of the kind in England; while it remains a specimen of the powers of landscape gardening, in that part of Scotland where the art had been introduced only by those imitators of Mr. Brown's manner, who had travelled into the north. His own improvements were confined to England."]
