Page:Architectural Review and American Builders' Journal, Volume 1, 1869.djvu/334

 274 Sloan's Architectural Review and Builders' Journal. [October, LANDSCAPE, DECORATIVE, AND ECONOMIC GAEDENING. No. 1. IN submitting to the pages of the " Architectural Review " a series of papers on the above-named subjects, I would desire to preface them with the remark, that the term gardening is here used in its widest and most comprehen- sive sense; not merely as an art either of strict or restrictive utility, as exem- plified in the cultivation of fruits, vege- tables and flowers ; but, while all this is included, it also implies eveiy thing relating to the location of rural resi- dences and their domestic auxiliary structures ; the decoration of grounds for the purpose of beautifying and en- riching the surroundings of homesteads and public buildings; together with all that may be necessary in the artistic arrangement of arborescent growth, so as to produce the most distinct, striking and varied beauties of which the scenery is susceptible. " Gardening," Bacon remarks, " is the "purest of human pleasures; it is the " greatest refreshment to the spirits of " man, without which buildings and " palaces are but gross handiworks ; and "we shall ever see, that, when ages " grow to civility and elegancy, men " come to build stately, sooner than to " garden finely ; as if gardening were "the greater perfection." In comparing the relative progress of architecture and gardening, at the present time, it must be admitted, that the " Sage of Verulam" has spoken in a prophetic manner. We are not, however, prepared to in- sist upon the claims he has made for srardenina: over that of architecture, as being the "greater perfection." Man, emerging from a rude to a civilized con- dition, will naturally endeavor to secure comfort and convenience, before he con- sults either elegance or ornamentation. The cave in the rock is superseded by some species of external structure, although it may be as rude as the huts of the ancient Romans, whose walls were formed of mud and roofed with the bark of trees. The external surround- ings of such buildings may not even reach to the extent that Walpole allows for the gardening of the ancients, "a slip of ground sufficient for a cabbage- plant and a gooseberry bush." Utilit}- always precedes the merely ornamental, therefore, architecture and gardening stand, in some measure, in the same relation to each other, as that presented by comfort and luxury; and take prece- dence according^. History proves, that a taste for gar- dening has kept pace with the progress of civilization, and always exercised a powerful influence upon the passions and feelings of mankind. Much of the decorative beauty of architecture has been derived from the study of the graceful lines and compositions of the vegetable kino-dom. It has been re- marked, that the principal enrichments of the Gothic are derived from the bud or germ, the Grecian from the leaf, and the Indian from the blossom. We are told that Hiram ornamented with lilies and pomegranates the celebrated pillars that he wrought for Solomon. The em- bellishments of Indian buildings are modelled from the flower of the lotus ; and columns were suggested by the towering trunks of the palm trees. The beautiful enrichment of the Corinthian capital is said to have been suggested by a basket covered with a tile, that happened to be placed over a root of the acanthus. The stalks and foliage had spread around the sides of the bas- ket, the points and leaves being refiexed by the tile. The elegance and novelty