Page:An Encyclopædia of Cottage, Farm, and Villa Architecture and Furniture.djvu/1017

 ORNAMENTAL CARDEX STRUCTURES. 093 are worse understood. A rockery is too frequently a mere mass of stories of different sizes and kinds, perhaps mixed with bricks, piled together without any attempt at expression or character ; in short, more as a nidus for a particular description of plants, than for effect as a mass of visible rock, or as fragments supposed to be connected with a mass under gi'ound. In small gardens this is unavoidable ; but in pleasure-grounds of any 1 extent the object ought to be the imitation of nature. For this purpose, the artist should first conceive in his mind some description of natural rock, either above the sur- face, which he intends to imitate ; or under it, which he intends to indicate. As the sub- ject belongs much more to Gardening than to Architecture, we shall not here go into details ; but one essential point we must mention, which is, that, in all imitations of nature, the stones employed ought to be of the same kind. Stoneries, as they are some- times called, might be made little geological museums, and contain, besides natural stones, scoriae, vitrified bricks, broken earthen vessels, architectural fragments, and old roots of trees. One of the best imitations of the face of a rock we know of, is that in the garden of the Colosseum in tlie Regent's Park, London. 1980. Statues in the open air are objected to by some, as unsuitable to our climate; and by others, as a practical absurdity. How ridiculous, say such persons, it is to place imitations of human beings on posts and pedestals in the open air, exposed to all weathers ! The proper answer to this last objection is, that it would be still more ridiculous to place them only in warm rooms. Statues are to be considered as works of art, among other works of art ; and there seems no reasonable objection to placing them anywhere among works of art of the like kind ; such as those of Architecture, an art the productions of which have been in all ages closely associated with those of Sculpture. Whenever architectural ornaments are introduced in a garden, therefore, we see no objec- tion to including among them statues and other sculptural articles, where the materials' of which these are made are of a nature sufficiently durable. There is nothing in the way of garden ornaments which we are more desirous of seeing introduced than statues of cast iron, and we are persuaded that the time is near at hand when statues of this material will be cast in one piece. Our patriotic correspondent, Mr. Robison, has lately' 6 A