We have given this design, to show how the ancient style of laying out grounds can be adapted to modern uses. We have repeatedly observed that we are not among those who consider the ancient, or architectural, style of laying out grounds as fit only for the ages in which it first appeared; and that, on the contrary, we consider it as much a style among other styles of landscape-gardening, as the Gothic is among other styles of architecture. The suitableness of this style for a country in a wild state must, we think, be obvious to every unprejudiced mind, from the contrast which its clearly defined lines and forms afford to the irregularity of the surrounding scenery, and from the obvious expression of art and refinement which they produce. In travelling over a flat country, like great part of the interior of Poland, which may be described as one interminable forest (the cultivated lands and pastures being merely extensive glades), it is delightful to arrive at a post-house with a walled garden, and perhaps a field or two enclosed by clipped hedges.

In the neighbourhood of Moscow, die greater part of the country residences are, or at least were in 1814, laid out in the geometrical style, and the principal things that were admired in them by the inhabitants were the long straight avenues and walks, bordered by clipped hornbeam hedges of great height; and the immense spruce fir hedges, which were found in other parts of the grounds and near the mansions. The geometrical style, besides being suitable for all countries not regularly lined out by walls and hedges, and cultivated in regular fields or ridges, is also in an eminent degree adapted for public gardens and parks, in which masses of people, or of horses and carriages, are to congregate together. If the reason be asked why straight walks, avenues, and formal lines of plantation, are more suitable for places of public resort than the circuitous walks, scattered groups, and single trees of the modem style, the answer is, that such straight walks and bread avenues are better adapted for displaying crowds of people, and long cavalcades of horses and carriages, to advantage; and that the great object of those public walks is display.

Such scenes are not for solitude, says Byron, speaking of the gardens of Versailles; and the truth of this remark must have been felt by every one who has seen such gardens. We do not say that it is necessary for all the walks of a public garden to be straight, and all the trees in rows, or in formal masses; we merely take these features as characteristic of the style, freely allowing that, when the curves of roads and walks in the modern style are so large as to present large portions of them to the eye at the same time, the effect comes to be nearly the same as in the geometrical style in its utmost rigour. Hence, the somewhat curved roads in the Regent's Park, and in Hyde Park, in London, are nearly as effective in displaying the company assembled in them as the straight roads in the Mall in St. James's Park, in the avenues in the Champs Elysees in Paris, and in the walks of the gardens at Versailles and Schonbrunn. It will he recollected, however, that the walks and roads in all the places mentioned, from their comparative straightness, belong more to the geometrical than to the modern style.

To pass from carriage-drives to walks adapted solely for persons on foot, if we take a review of all the public gardens in Europe, we shall find that the most effective display, on holidays, is always made in broad straight walks: for example, in the broad north and south walk in Kensington Gardens; in the broad avenue through the Regent's Park, opposite Portland Place; the broad walk opposite the Luxemburg, in Paris; that opposite the palace of Sehbonbrunn, near Vienna; and those in the gardens of the summer palace, in St Petersburg. The truth is, that the modern style is essentially calculated for solitude and retirement, while the geometrical style is especially calculated for publicity and display. The numerous windings of the walks In the modern style, and the various groups into which its woods are thrown, occasion, to a spectator walking along them, a perpetual change in the scenery, and never allow masses or long columns of people to be seen at once. Every thing connected with the ancient style has exactly a contrary effect: there can be no privacy in straight avenues.