Page:An Encyclopædia of Cottage, Farm, and Villa Architecture and Furniture.djvu/1016

 992 COTTAGE, FARM, AND VILLA ARCHITECTURE. 1768 heighten its architectural character; for example, hy adding to the plain walls of an old decaying castle, a tower, a turret, a window with mullions and tracery, or a corbel cornice and embattlements. The use of artificial ruins has been so much abused in Eng- land, that the tide of prejudice has for some time set in strongly against their erection ; but this does not appear to us a sufficient reason for rejecting them altogether. Now that cement is so universally manufactured, is so ch.ea]), and its valuable uses are so well understood by builders, artificial ruins may be constructed in a very superior manner to what they have hitherto been ; and correct imitations of classical edifices, instructive from their Architecture, might be introduced avowedly as imitation, which, besides their historical interest, might serve .is useful lessons in art. A ruin of this kind has been erected in the grounds at Shugborough, in Staffordshire ; and a ruin in the Gothic style, Radway Grange, fig. 17G9, which has deceived many a traveller, has long existed on both sides of the road leading from Banbury, in Oxfordshire, to Kingston, in Warwick- shire. It is situated on the brow of Edgehill, the scene of a celebrated battle in the time of Charles I., and may thus be considered to possess a certain degree of historical interest. It was designed liy a private gentleman of great taste, the late E. IMiller, Esq., of Radway (to whose son, F. S. Miller, Esq., we are indebted for fig. 1769), and was executed by a local mason. Part of this ruin forms a prospect tower, as before recom- mended, and the habitable part of the remainder is occupied as a public-house, and as dwellings for labourers. In many parks in England, the farm buildings are placed on rising grounds, so as to form conspicuous objects in the views from the house ; and their exterior elevations are disguised as ruins, or as old castles partially repaired, as in fig. 1770. 1 979. Rockwork is one of the most common ornaments of gardens ; though few of them