tion, and habits; the next such as contain the hardier birds of other countries, with the same object in view, and also their acclimating and naturalization.

746. Management. A person or persons must be exclusively devoted to this department, and each species treated according to its nature and habits, as ascertained from nature, or books on ornithology.

747. Menageries were formerly attached to most of the royal gardens and parks of Europe. The most complete example is that of the Paris garden, constructed and arranged, as much as possible, according to the natures and habits of the different animals enclosed. The subject, however, can hardly be considered within our department. 748. The Piscinaries, cochlearium, ranarium, columbarium, &c. belong to that part of rural economy which forms the connecting link of rural and domestic economy.

SECT. III. Decorative Buildings.

The general characteristic of this class is, that they are introduced more for their picturesque efect as part of external scenery, than as absolutely necessary. Their construction, like the others, belongs chiefly to civil architecture and sculpture; but the choice and emplacement to gardening. Their variety is almost endless; but we shall rank a few selections under the different heads of useful, convenient, and characteristic decorations.

SUBSECT. 1. Useful Decorative Buildings.

These are such, as while they serve as ornaments, or to heighten the effect of a scene, are also applied to some real use, as in the case of cottages and bridges. They are the class of decorative buildings most general and least liable to objection.

749. Cottages are of various sorts; one grand division is founded on the style of architecture employed, as Grecian, Gothic, Chinese, &c.; another, on the materials used, as stone, brick, timber, wicker-work, with moss or mud; and another, on the peculiar style of different countries, as English, Swedish, Italian, &c. (See Prin. of Design in Arch. 8vo. 1821.)

The Gothic Cottage is characterised by the forms of the Gothic or pointed style of architecture in the openings, as doors, windows, &c. in the chimney tops and gable ends. It may be thatched; but the most appropriate roof is grey slate, or slate stone, or flat grey tyles.

The Grecian Cottage is that in which the lines of Grecian architecture prevail. These are generally horizontal, and may be displayed in the windows, roof, and other parts. The roof is generally flat and projecting, and the best slate or flag-stone seems the most approved covering.

The Chinese Cottage is characterized by concave lines in the roof, projecting eaves, small windows, and bell or drop ornaments. The proper roofing is parti-colored tyles, with which the walls may also be covered.

The Bengal Cottage has walls of mud, the openings surrounded by frames of bamboo, the doors and divisions of the windows of the same material, and the roof covered with reeds. The English Cottage is generally Gothic as to style, the lowest order formed of mud and thatched, with boarded labels over the windows and doors; the second order of framed timber, filled up with brick-work, with oaken door and window-frames; and the third order of solid brick, with stone door aud window-frames, and Gothic mouldings and labels.

There is a very pleasing assemblage of picturesque cottages, mostly thatched, erected on the grounds at Blaize castle, near Bristol. They are not only varied in form, for which much facility is obtained, by including two, and sometimes three dwellings, in one pile; but their disposition on the ground, and the surface of the ground itself, is varied; and by the management of the walks and trees, an eyeful of any part seldom contains more than two or three groups; always one in the fore-ground, and the others in the middle or remote distance. They were designed by Nash.

The Scotch Cottage is, as to architectural style, something between Gothic and Grecian. It is the same with the cottage of France and Flanders, is characterised by high narrow gable ends, with notched or step-like finishings. The material of the walls, almost always stone; and of the roof, pantiles or grey schistus slate.

The Italian Cottage is characterized by Grecian lines, and forms bold projections and recesses, as far as a cottage admits of these; high pantiled roofs of a peculiar construction; the walls, white-washed, and in farmers' cottages, especially in Tuscany, often a part of the roof raised as a sort of watchtower.

The Polish Cottage is formed chiefly of timber, with some plaister and wicker work to thicken the walls within. The roof is covered with shingles or fir-timber split into pieces of about eighteen inches long, and six inches broad, and half an inch thick. The ends are generally upright, not en pavillion, and the roofs projecting.

The Russian Cottage is also built of timber, but of solid logs or trees notched, and let into each other at the angles of the building where they intersect. They are roofed as in the Polish cottage, and sometimes highly ornamented at the ends by carved imitations

of the sun, moon, stars, &c. protruded from the ends, and protected by the projection

of the roof.

The Swedish and Danish Cottage is built of logs and moss, like the Russian.

750. The Primitive Hut, or Cabin, varies as to material, according to the country in which it is formed. The rudest description of artificial shelter for man, is perhaps that used by the aboriginal inhabitants of Botany Bay, which is a large plate of the bark of a tree bent in the middle, and its two ends stuck in the earth. The rudest European hut is generally a cone formed by branches, poles, or young trees, with their ends set in the ground, made to lean against each other at the top. They are then covered with spray, heath, straw, reeds, or turf. One opening serves the purpose of all others. In countries abounding in noxious reptiles, this is made in the upper part of the roof, and entered as by a trap-door, as in Stedman's hut at Surinam; but in Europe the entrance is generally made on a level with the floor, as in the huts of Ireland, the Highlands of Scotland, and Lapland. Modifications of this and other rude forms (figs. 202 to 205), may sometimes be admitted in garden scenery, as tool-houses, or shelters for other materials, game, &c.

202

203

204

205

INTIA

751. The Bridge is one of the grandest decorations of garden scenery, where really useful. None require so little architectural elaboration, because every mind recognizes the object in view, and most minds are pleased with the means employed to attain that object in proportion to their simplicity. There are an immense variety of bridges, which may be classed according to the mechanical principles of their structure; the style of architecture, or the materials used.

With respect to the principles of mechanical structure, the materials of bridges are held together, either by their gravity, as in all arches, whether of stone, iron, or timber; or by their tenacity, as in single planks, flat bridges of iron, or timber, and those new and wonderful exertions of ingenuity, suspended bridges, of which fine examples have been executed across the Menai and the Tweed, and the principles of which we have elsewhere (Annals of Philosophy, Jan. 1816.) entered into at large.

With respect to styles of architecture, the bridge affords little opportunity of detailed display; but the openings may be circular arches, (Roman), and pointed (Gothic), or right-lined (Grecian), or a mixture of these.

As to material, bridges of tenacity are formed of timber, or wrought-iron; bridges of gravity, generally of cast-iron or stone; but they may be formed of any material. We submit a few examples in different styles, and composed of different materials.

The Fallen Tree is the original form, and may sometimes be admitted in garden scenery, with such additions as will render it safe, and somewhat commodious.

The Foot Plank is the next form, and may or may not be supported in the middle, or at different distances by posts.

The Swiss Bridge (figs. 206 and 207.) is a rude composition of trees unbarked, and not hewn or polished.

206

752. The Tied Plank (fig. 208.) is formed by fixing the ends of one or more planks in two heads or cases of cast-iron, (a a) and then connecting them by wrought-iron rods (bb) fixed to the heads in the manner of a string to a bow. A very light bridge is thus formed, which acts both by tenacity and gravity. Thus, when a light weight is on the bridge, the particles of the boards are not moved, but merely pressed on, and therefore the arched part may then be said to act by gravity, while this pressure being propagated to the abutments, these are held in equilibrium by the iron rods acting by their tenacity. On the other hand, when a bridge of this sort is heavily loaded, the arch will bend down, or yield in some places and rise in others, in which case, the whole acts by its tenacity.

A very light and strong bridge may be formed by screwing together thin boards in the form of a segment, or by screwing together a system of triangles of timber. This principle may be carried to a great extent; by using so many lamina, the elasticity of the materials is lessened without rupturing their parts, and though, from the form of such arches, they would appear to act by gravity, yet in truth, they act more by tenacity, for the ends of the segment cannot be pressed out without rupturing the soffit, or crushing the crown of the arch. For broad tame rivers in flat grounds, such arches may be appropriately adopted, as attaining the end without any appearance of great effort. (See Fulton on Bridges. Howard on Military Bridges.)

753. Bridges of Common Carpentry (figs. 209, 210.) admit of every variety of form, and either rustic or with unpolished materials, or of polished timber alone, or of dressed timber and abutments of masonry.

211

754. Bridges of Masonry (fig. 211.) may either have raised or flat roads; but in all cases those are the most beautiful (because most consistent with utility) in which the road on the arch rises as little above the level of the road on the shores as possible; notwithstanding the prejudices of some eminent engineers, (Telford in Ed. Encyc. art. Bridge.) in favor of the old practice of always forming the extrados of a con

siderable curve. It is only where masted vessels are to pass under, that the raising the arches higher than what is necessary for the transit of the stream can be considered in good taste.

212

b

755. Cast-iron Bridges are necessarily curved; but that curvature, and the lines which enter into the architecture of their rails, may be varied according to taste or local indications.

756. The boat, as to construction, belongs to naval architecture. In gardening, it is sometimes used as a substitute for the bridge; sometimes worked by a mechanical power, as the wheel and pinion, and commonly with the deck arranged as part of the gravel walk, which approaches the edge of the water. But where a river with a current is to be crossed, the flying boat, with the deck arranged as part of the walk, (fig. 212.) is preferable. The motion of this boat is derived from the obliquity of its sides to the direction of the current, which must be kept up by the use of the rudder. The boat (a) must be anchored to a post (b) fixed in the middle of the river; and the longer the cable (c), the manœuvre will be more easily executed, provided the movement is not made in a greater arc than 90°. The force of the stream is at a maximum, when the angle formed by it, and the side of the boat is 54° 44'. The same purpose may be effected by a triangular raft without the use

แ

of a rudder. See Howard on Military Bridges, Sect. 4. p. 97.

757. Sepulchral structures, where really used as such, seem fitting parts of garden scenery. Jesus Christ was buried in a garden, and so was Horne Tooke, and a great variety of intervening eminent men. The idea of undergoing decomposition among fresh earth, and the roots of plants, is certainly much less repugnant to human feeling, than churchyard interment.

The most ancient form of sepulchres seems to have been tumuli, burrows, or mounts of earth; sometimes planted, but generally left to acquire a cloathing of turf. In cool regions, these may be considered the most durable of all tombs, because the roots and cloathing of the turf prevent the earth from being washed or blown away by the weather, and the material presents no temptation to the avarice of mankind. Of such tombs there are several on a small scale in Wiltshire, and on a large scale around the city of Cracow; the last considered as the sepulchres of the ancient kings of Poland.

The next form is the Cairn, or cone of rough stones, common in some parts of Britain. To this succeeded the pyramid of Egypt. These are, in their nature and construction, calculated to serve as durable monuments, and were very properly employed by kings and chiefs in rude ages; for then, as now, the idea of being quite forgotten was felt to be unpleasant. But in more modern times, those parts of men's actions, which are worth remembering, can be recorded in books, which, when good, are the most durable of all monuments. Such piles as have been mentioned, are felt as too expensive, and considered as too gross a display of the love of fame; men, therefore, have recourse to what may be called emblems of monuments, known under the names of mausoleums, obelisks, pillars, tombs, vaults, stone coffins, sarcophagi, urns, &c. all of which exist from general consent, and not from the indestructive nature of their materials or construction, as in the former class. The most unnatural form of sepulture, and the most liable ultimately to defeat the very end in view-respect to the memory of the deceased, is that in which the body is embalmed, or hermetically sealed up in a box or chest of durable materials, such as lead, and placed in a richly ornamented building of valuable stone. Here, in times of intestine war and rapine, the building will be broken into, and the lead and other valuable materials taken from the bodies; even the stuffs in which the body is wrapped may be an object, as was the case with the retreating French army at Kowno and other places in 1812; or the architectural ornaments, and the dead bodies themselves, may be objects of research, as in the case of certain Grecian marbles, and the despoliation of numerous Egyptian tombs. A very natural form of sepulture for a family residing on their own estate in the country, is a consecrated grove or inclosure, in which each individual is buried near a tree, inscribed with his name on the bark. All that an enemy, or a new purchaser can do, is to cut down

the trees, and change the state of the ground from pasture to arable. If any of the family have effected any great public good, it will be elsewhere permanently recorded; if they have not, it is fitting their names should, as indeed they always will, perish with their bodies. The utility of epitaphs and tombs in public groves, or church-yards, however, it is not meant to deny; nor to impugn the different tastes of individuals. The grand object appears to us to be the attainment of the greatest possible quantum of enjoyment, mental and corporal, while living.

As to monuments for the inferior animals, such as are to be found at Potsdam, Oatlands, and Bramley Hall, we say, with that enviable and remarkable character the Prince de Ligne,

"Loin ces vains monumens d'un chien ou d'un oiseau,

"C'est profaner le deuil, insulter au tombeau.”

758. The Gate is of various forms and materials, according to those of the barrier of which it constitutes a part. In all gates, the essential part of the construction, or those lines which maintain its strength and position, and facilitate its motion, are to be distinguished from such (a a, figs. 213; and fig. 214.) as serve chiefly to render it a barrier, or as decorations. Thus a gate with a raised top or head, (fig. 215.) is almost always in bad taste, because at variance with strength; while the contrary form (fig. 214.) is generally in good taste, for the contrary reason. In regard to strength, the nearer the arrangement of rails and bars approaches in effect to one solid lamina, or plate of wood or iron, of the gate's dimensions, the greater will be the force required to tear or break it in pieces. But this would not be consistent with lightness and economy, and, therefore, the skeleton of a lamina is resorted to, by the employment of slips or rails joined tog ther on mechanical principles; that is, on principles derived from a mechanical analysis of strong bodies. Strength of the most perfect kind is resolvable into hardness and tenacity; and in artificial compositions, the latter is obtained by what in carpentry are called ties (a, figs. 213. and 216.) and the former by what are called struts (b, 216.). The art of carpentry, as far as construction is concerned, whether of gates, or of roofs, consists in the judicious composition of ties and struts; the former always resisting a drawing or twisting power, and the latter one of a pressing or crushing nature.

h

216

759. By the maintenance of a gate's position, we mean the resistance to that tendency which most gates have to sink at the head or falling post, and thus no longer to open and shut freely. If the construction and hanging of the gate were perfect, this could not possibly take place; but as the least degree of laxity in trussing the gate, or want of firmness in fixing the post in the ground, will occasion, after frequent use, a sensible depression at the head, it becomes requisite either to guard against it as much as possible, in the first construction; or, to have, as in N. Parker's gate, a provision in the design of the upper hinge, for rectifying the deviations as they take place. In order to understand the construction best calculated to resist depression, suppose a gate hung, and resting on its heel (c), acting as a strut, and maintained there by its upper hinge (d), acting as a tie, then the bottom rail of the gate considered as representing the whole, becomes a lever of the second kind, in which the prop is at one end (c), the power at the other (g), and the weight placed between them in the line of the centre of gravity of the gate (i). Now, as two equal forces, to hold each other in equilibrium, must act in the same direction, it follows, that the power acting at the end of the lever (g), will have most influence when exerted at right angles to

k