,,garden ,,design ,,by ,,the ,,same ,,alpine ,,flowers for ,english ,gardens4 ,second ,edition4 ,,the ,,sub-,,tropical ,,garden2 or1 ,beauty of ,form in the ,flower ,garden4 ,second ,edition4 ,,hardy ,,flowers4 ,description of upwards of #acjj of the most ornamental species1 with ,directions for their ,arrangement1 ,culture1 etc4 ,fourth and ,cheaper ,edition4 ,,the ,,wild ,,garden2 or1 ,our ,graves and ,gardens made beautiful by the ,naturalisation of ,hardy ,exotic ,plants4 ,illustrated by ,,alfred ,,parsons4 ,second ,edition4 ,john ,murray4 ,,the ,,english ,,flower ,,garden3 ,style1 ,position1 and ,arrangement4 ,followed by a ,description of all the best ,plants for it--their ,culture and ,arrangement4 ,second ,edition1 #ahhi4 ,john ,murray4 ,,god',s ,,acre ,,beautiful2 or1 ,the ,cemeteries of the ,future4 ,third ,edition4 ,with ,illustrations4 ,london3 ,john ,murray4 ,new ,york3 ,scribner ,welford4 ,published in a cheaper form and with additions under the name-- ,,cremation ,,and ,,urn-,,burial4 ,cassell ,co41 ,limited4 ,,the ,,parks ,,and ,,gardens ,,of ,,paris4 ,considered in ,relation to the ,wants of other ,cities1 and of ,public and ,private ,gardens4 ,being notes made in ,paris ,gardens4 ,third ,edition4 ,illustrated4 ,london3 ,john ,murray4 ,,journals ,,the ,,garden4 ,an ,illustrated ,weekly ,journal of ,gardening in all its branches4 ,vol4 ,,xl4 ,,gardening ,,illustrated4 ,for ,town and ,country4 ,a ,weekly ,journal for ,amateurs and ,gardeners4 ,vol4 ,,xiii4 ,,farm ,,and ,,home4 ,a ,weekly ,illustrated ,journal of ,agriculture in all its branches4 ,stock1 ,dairy1 ,tillage1 ,stable1 ,pasture1 ,orchard1 ,market-,garden1 ,poultry1 ,house4 ,vol4 ,x4 ,,woods ,,and ,,forests4 ,a ,weekly ,illustrated ,journal of ,forestry1 ,ornamental ,planting1 and ,estate ,management4 ,vols4 ,i4 and ,,ii4 #ahhe4 ,,garden ,,design ,,and ,,architects' ,,gardens ,two reviews1 illustrated1 to show1 by actual examples from ,british gardens1 that clipping and aligning trees to make them 'harmonise' with architecture is barbarous1 needless1 and inartistic by ,w4 ,robinson1 ,f4,l4,s4 ,london3 ,john ,murray1 ,albemarle ,street #ahib ,to ,sir ,philip ,currie1 ,k4,c4,b4 ,,preface ,that we might see1 eyes were given us2 and a tongue to tell accurately what we had got to see4 ,it is the alpha and omega of all intellect that man has4 ,no poetry1 hardly even that of ,goethe1 is equal to the true image of reality--had one eyes to see that4--,t4 ,,carlyle1 ,letters to ,varnhagen ,von ,ense4 ,the one ,english thing that has touched the heart of the world is the ,english garden4 ,proof of this we have in such noble gardens as the ,english park at ,munich1 the garden of the ,emperor of ,austria at ,laxenberg1 the ,petit ,trianon at ,versailles1 the parks formed of recent years round ,paris1 and many lovely gardens in ,europe and ,america4 ,the good sense of ,english writers and landscape gardeners refused to accept as right or reasonable the architect's garden1 a thing set out as bricks and stones are1 and the very trees of which were mutilated to meet his views as to design or rather to prove his not being able to see the simplest elements of design in landscape beauty or natural form4 ,and some way or other they destroyed nearly all signs of it throughout our land4 ,in every country where gardens are made we see the idea of the ,english garden gratefully accepted2 and though there are as yet no effective means of teaching the true art of landscape gardening1 we see many good results in ,europe and ,america4 ,no good means have ever been devised for the teaching of this delightful ,english art4 ,here and there a man of keen sympathy with ,nature does good work1 but often it is carried out by men trained for a very different life1 as engineers in the great ,paris parks1 and in our own country by surveyors and others whose training often wholly unfits them for the study of the elements of beautiful landscape4 ,thus we do not often see good examples of picturesque garden and park design1 while bad work is common4 ,everywhere--unhappily1 even in ,england1 the home of landscape gardening--the too frequent presence of stupid work in landscape gardening offers some excuse for the two reactionary books which have lately appeared--books not worth notice for their own sake1 as they contribute nothing to our knowledge of the beautiful art of gardening or garden design4 ,but so many people suppose that artistic matters are mere questions of windy argument1 that ,i think it well to show by ,english gardens and country seats of to-day that the many sweeping statements of their authors may be disproved by reference to actual things1 to be seen by all who care for them4 ,we live at a time when1 through complexity of thought and speech1 artistic questions have got into a maze of confusion4 ,even teachers by profession confuse themselves and their unfortunate pupils with vague and hyper-refined talk about art and schools and styles1 while all the time much worse work is done than in days when simpler1 clearer views were held4 ,to prove this there is the example of the great ,master's work and the eternal laws of nature1 on the study of which all serious art must be for ever based4 ,beneath all art there are laws1 however subtle1 that cannot be ignored without error and waste2 and in garden design there are lessons innumerable both in wild and cultivated ,nature which will guide us well if we seek to understand them simply4 ,these books are made up in great part of quotations from old books on gardening--many of them written by men who knew books better than gardens4 ,where the authors touch the ground of actuality1 they soon show little acquaintance with the subject2 and1 indeed1 they see no design at all in landscape gardening and admit their ignorance of it4 ,that men should write on things of which they have thought little is unhappily of frequent occurrence1 but to find them openly avowing their ignorance of the art they presume to criticise is new4 ,a word or two on the state of architecture itself may not be amiss4 ,from ,gower ,street to the new ,law ,courts our architecture does not seem to be in a much better state than landscape gardening is1 according to the architects to whom we owe the ,formal ,garden and ,garden ,craft6 ,it is ,william ,morris--whose design these authors may respect--who calls ,london houses mean and idiotic rabbit warrens3 so that there is plenty to do for ambitious young architects to set their own house in artistic order6 ,as regards formal gardening1 the state of some of the best old houses in ,england--,longleat1 ,compton-,wynyates1 ,brympton1 and many others1 where trees in formal lines1 clipped or otherwise1 are not seen in connection with the architecture--is proof against the need of the practice4 ,as regards the best new houses1 ,clouds1 so well built by ,mr4 ,philip ,webb1 is not any the worse for its picturesque surroundings1 which do not meet the architect's senseless craving for order and balance2 while ,batsford1 certainly one of the few really good new houses in ,england1 is not disfigured by the fashions in formality the authors wish to see revived1 and of which they give an absurd example in a cut of ,badminton4 ,there is1 in short1 ample proof1 furnished both by the beautiful old houses of ,england and by those new ones that have any claim to dignity1 that the system they seek to revive could only bring costly ugliness to our beautiful home-landscapes4 ,w4 ,r4 ,july #a1 #ahib4 ,,contents ,,page ,,garden ,,design #a ,,natural ,,and ,,false ,,lines #e ,,uncultivated ,,nature #h ,,the ,,true ,,landscape #ac ,,buildings ,,in ,,relation ,,to ,,the ,,garden #af ,,time ,,and ,,gardens #bj ,,true ,,use ,,of ,a ,,garden #bc ,,formal ,,gardening #be ,,nature1 ,,and ,,what ,,we ,,mean ,,by ,,it #ca ,,all ,,our ,,paths ,,are ,,crooked6 #ce ,,the ,,only ,,garden ,,possible6 #dj ,,no ,,design ,,in ,,landscape #dc ,,no ,,grass ,,in ,,landscape ,,gardening6 #df ,,improving ,,battersea ,,park6 #ej ,,nature ,,and ,,clipped ,,yews #ec ,,no ,,line ,,in ,,nature6 #fb ,,vegetable ,,sculpture #ff ,,illustrations ,,rhianva ,to face page #b ,,group ,,of ,,trees ,,on ,,garden ,,lawn ,,at ,,golder',s ,,hill1 ,,hampstead ,page #d ,,wakehurst ,to face page #f ,,gilbert ,,white',s ,,house ,,at ,,selborne #aj ,,example ,,of ,,formal ,,gardening ,page #ab ,,longleat ,to face page #af ,,old ,,place1 ,,lindfield #ah ,,arundel ,,castle #bj ,,tailpiece ,page #bb ,,west ,,dean ,to face page #bd ,,athelhampton ,,hall1 ,,dorset #bf ,,the ,,vicarage ,,garden1 ,,odiham #cj ,,unclipped ,,trees ,,at ,,the ,,little ,,trianon ,page #cd ,,westonbirt ,to face page #cf ,,thrumpton ,,hall #dj ,,tailpiece ,page #de ,,goodwood ,to face page #df ,,avenue ,,in ,,paris #ej ,,clipped ,,trees ,,at ,,the ,,little ,,trianon ,page #eb ,,the ,,grange1 ,,hartley ,,wintney ,to face page #ed ,a ,,yew ,,tree ,,on ,,mountain1 ,n4 ,,england #ef ,,building ,,in ,,paris #eh ,,broadlands1 ,,hants #fd ,,warren ,,house1 ,,coombe ,,wood #ff ,,drummond ,,castle #fh ,,madresfield #gj ,,tailpiece ,page #gc ,the number of those who really think seriously before they begin to write is small2 extremely few of them think about the subject itself2 the remainder think only about the books that have been written on it4--,,arthur ,,schopenhauer4 ,,garden ,,design#a #a ,the ,formal ,garden in ,england4 ,by ,reginald ,blomfield and ,f4 ,inigo ,thomas4 ,london3 ,macmillan and ,co4 ,a beautiful house in a fair landscape is the most delightful scene of the cultivated earth--all the more so if there be an artistic garden--the rarest thing to find6 ,the union--a happy marriage it should be--between the house beautiful and the ground near it is worthy of more thought than it has had in the past1 and the best ways of effecting that union artistically should interest men more and more as our cities grow larger and our lovely ,english landscape shrinks back from them4 ,the views of old writers will help us little1 for a wholly different state of things has arisen in these mechanical days4 ,my own view is that we have never yet got from the garden1 and1 above all1 the home landscape1 half the beauty which we may get by abolishing the needless formality and geometry which disfigure so many gardens1 both as regards plan and flower planting4 ,formality is often essential in the plan of a flower garden near a house--never as regards the arrangements of its flowers or shrubs4 ,to array these in lines or rings or patterns can only be ugly wherever done6 ,that men have never yet generally enjoyed the beauty that good garden design may give is clear from the fact that the painter is driven from the garden6 ,the artist dislikes the common garden with its formality and bedding2 he cannot help hating it6 ,in a country place he will seek anything but the garden1 but may1 perhaps1 be found near a wild ,rose tossing over the pigsty4 ,this dislike is natural and right1 as from most flower gardens the possibility of any beautiful result is shut out6 ,yet the beautiful garden exists1 and there are numbers of cottage gardens in ,surrey or ,kent that are as paintable as any bit of pure landscape6 ,illustration3 ,rhianva4 ,terraced garden1 but with picturesque planting and flower gardening ,why is the cottage garden often a picture1 and the gentleman's garden near1 wholly shut out of the realm of art1 a thing which an artist cannot look at long8 ,it is the absence of pretentious plan in the cottage garden which lets the flowers tell their tale direct2 the simple walks going where they are wanted2 flowers not set in patterns2 the walls and porch alive with flowers4 ,can the gentleman's garden then1 too1 be a picture8 ,certainly2 the greater the breadth and means the better the picture should be4 ,but never if our formal decorative style of design is kept to4 ,reform must come by letting ,nature take her just place in the garden4 ,illustration3 ,group of trees on garden lawn at ,golder's ,hill1 ,hampstead2 picturesque effect in suburban garden ,,natural ,,and ,,false ,,lines ,after we have settled the essential approaches1 levels1 and enclosures for shelter1 privacy1 or dividing lines around a house1 the natural form or lines of the earth herself are in nearly all cases the best to follow1 and in my work ,i face any labour to get the ground back into its natural level or fall where disfigured by ugly banks1 lines1 or angles4 ,in the true ,italian garden on the hills we have to alter the natural line of the earth or terrace it1 because we cannot otherwise cultivate the ground or move at ease upon it4 ,such steep ground exists in many countries1 and where it does1 a like plan must be followed4 ,the strictly formal in such ground is as right in its way as the lawn in a garden in the ,thames valley4 ,but the lawn is the heart of the true ,english garden1 and as essential as the terrace is to the gardens on the steep hills4 ,english lawns have too often been destroyed that geometrical gardens may be made where they are not only needless1 but harmful both to the garden and home landscape4 ,sometimes on level ground the terrace walls cut off the view of the landscape from the house1 and1 on the other hand1 the house from the landscape6 ,i hold that it is possible to get every charm of a garden and every use of a country-seat without sacrifice of the picturesque or beautiful2 that there is no reason why1 either in the working or design of gardens1 there should be a single false line in them4 ,by this ,i mean hard and ugly lines such as the earth never follows1 as say1 to mention a place known to many1 the banks about the head of the lake in the ,bois de ,boulogne4 ,these lines are seen in all bad landscape work1 though with good workmen ,i find it is as easy to form true and artistic lines as false and ugly ones4 ,every landscape painter or observer of landscape will know what is meant here1 though ,i fear it is far beyond the limits of the ideas of design held by the authors of the ,formal ,garden4 ,also1 that every charm of the flower garden may be secured by avoiding wholly the knots and scrolls which make all the plants and flowers of a garden1 all its joy and life1 subordinate to the wretched conventional design in which they are set out4 ,the true way is the opposite4 ,we should see the flowers and feel the beauty of plant forms1 with only the simplest possible plans to ensure good working1 to secure every scrap of turf wanted for play or lawn1 and for every enjoyment of a garden4 ,illustration3 ,wakehurst4 ,elizabethan house with grounds not terraced ,,uncultivated ,,nature ,such views ,i have urged1 and carry them out when ,i can1 in the hope of bringing gardening into a line with art1 from which it is now so often divorced4 ,it is natural that these views should meet with some opposition1 and the consideration of the ,formal ,garden gives the opportunity of examining their value4 ,the question1 briefly stated1 is this3 ,are we1 in laying out our gardens1 to ignore the house1 and to reproduce uncultivated ,nature to the best of our ability in the garden8 ,or are we to treat the house and garden as inseparable factors in one homogeneous whole1 which are to co-operate for one premeditated result8 ,no sane person has ever proposed to ignore the house4 ,so far from ignoring the house in my own work1 where there is a beautiful house it tells me what to do6 ,unhappily1 the house is often so bad that nothing can prevent its evil effect on the garden4 ,reproducing uncultivated ,nature is no part of good gardening1 as the whole reason of a flower garden is that it is a home for cultivated ,nature4 ,it is the special charm of the garden that we may have beautiful natural objects in their living beauty in it1 but we cannot do this without care and culture to begin with6 ,whether it be ,atlas ,cedar or ,eastern ,cypress1 ,lily-tree or ,american ,mountain ,laurel1 all must be cared for at first1 and we must know their ways of life and growth if we are to treat them so that they will both grow well and be rightly placed--an essential point4 ,and the more precious and rare they are the better the place they should have in the flower garden proper or pleasure ground1--places always the object of a certain essential amount of care even under the simplest and wisest plans4 ,if we wish to encourage uncultivated ,nature it must surely be a little further afield6 ,a wretched flowerless pinched bedding plant and a great yellow climbing ,tea ,rose are both cultivated things1 but what a vast difference in their beauty6 ,there are many kinds of cultivated ,nature1 and every degree of ugliness among them4 ,sir ,c4 ,barry's idea was that the garden was gradually to become less and less formal till it melted away into the park4 ,compromises such as these1 however1 will be rejected by thoroughgoing adherents of the formal gardens who hold that the garden should be avowedly separated from the adjacent country by a clean boundary line1 a good high wall for choice4 7,the ,formal ,garden47 ,would any one put this high wall in front of ,gilbert ,white's house at ,selborne1 or of ,golder's ,hill at ,hampstead1 or many ,english houses where the erection of a high wall would cut off the landscape8 ,not a word about the vast variety of such situations1 each of which would require to be treated in a way quite different from the rest6 ,there are many places in every county that would be robbed of their best charms by separating the garden from the adjacent country by a good high wall4 ,illustration3 ,gilbert ,white's house at ,selborne4 ,example of many gardens with lawn coming to windows and flowers on its margin ,the custom of planting avenues and cutting straight lines through the woods surrounding the house to radiate in all directions was a departure from that strictly logical system which separated the garden from the park1 and left the latter to take care of itself1 a system which frankly subordinated ,nature to art within the garden wall1 but in return gave ,nature an absolutely free hand outside it4 7,the ,formal ,garden47 ,nature an absolutely free hand6 ,imagine a great park or any part of an estate being left to ,nature with an absolutely free hand6 ,if it were1 in a generation there would be very little to see but the edge of the wood4 ,callous to the beauty of ,english parks1 he does not know that they are the object of much care1 and he abuses all those who ever formed them1 ,brown1 ,repton1 and the rest4 ,illustration3 ,example of formal gardening1 with clipped trees and clipped shrubs in costly tubs ,,the ,,true ,,landscape ,mr4 ,blomfield writes nonsense1 and then attributes it to me-- that is to say1 we go to ,claude1 and having saturated our minds with his rocks and trees1 we return to ,nature and try to worry her into a resemblance to ,claude4 ,i am never concerned with ,claude1 but seek the best expression ,i can secure of our beautiful ,english real landscapes1 which are far finer than ,claude's4 ,at least ,i never saw any painted landscape like them--say that from the ,chestnut ,walk at ,shrubland1 looking over the lovely ,suffolk country4 ,that is the precious heritage we have to keep4 ,and that is where simple and picturesque gardening will help us by making the garden a beautiful foreground for the true landscape1 instead of cutting it off with a high wall or anything else that is ugly and needless4 ,the lawns are not to be left in broad expanse1 but to have ,pampas ,grasses1 foreign shrubs1 etc41 dotted about on the surface4 ,i have fought for years against the lawn-destruction by the terrace-builders and bedding-out gardeners6 ,but how are we to have our lawns in broad expanse if we build a high wall near the house to cut off even the possibility of a lawn8 ,this has been done in too many cases to the ruin of all good effect and repose1 often to shut out as good landscapes as ever were painted6 ,there are flagrant cases in point to be found in private gardens in the suburbs of ,london4 ,there is much bad and ignorant landscape work as there is bad building everywhere1 but errors in that way are more easily removed than mistakes in costly and aimless work in brick and stone4 ,at ,coombe ,cottage1 when ,i first saw its useless terrace wall shutting out the beautiful valley view from the living rooms1 ,i spoke of the error that had been made1 but the owner thought that1 as it had cost him a thousand pounds1 he had better leave it where it was6 ,,buildings ,,in ,,relation ,,to ,,the ,,garden ,the place of formal gardening is clear for ever4 ,the architect can help the gardener much by building a beautiful house6 ,that is his work4 ,the true architect1 it seems to me1 would seek to go no farther4 ,the better the real work of the architect is done1 the better for the garden and landscape4 ,if there are any difficulties of level about the house beautiful1 they should be dealt with by the architect1 and the better his work and the necessary terracing1 if any1 are done1 the pleasanter the work of the landscape or other gardener who has to follow him should be4 ,illustration3 ,longleat4 ,type of nobler ,english country seat with old house and picturesque planting ,that a garden is made for plants is what most people who care for gardens suppose4 ,if a garden has any use1 it is to treasure for us beautiful flowers1 shrubs1 and trees4 ,in these days--when our ways of building are the laughing-stock of all who care for beautiful buildings--there is plenty for the architect to do without spoiling our gardens6 ,most of the houses built in our time are so bad1 that even the best gardening could hardly save them from contempt4 ,our garden flora is now so large1 that a life's work is almost necessary to know it4 ,how is a man to make gardens wisely if he does not know what has to be grown in them8 ,i do not mean that we are to exclude other men than the landscape gardener proper from the garden4 ,we want all the help we can get from those whose tastes and training enable them to help us--the landscape painter best of all1 if he cares for gardens and trees--the country gentleman1 or any keen student and lover of ,nature4 ,the landscape gardener of the present day is not always what we admire1 his work often looking more like that of an engineer4 ,his gardening near the house is usually a repetition of the decorative work of the house1 of which ,i hope many artistic people are already tired4 ,and as ,i think people will eventually see the evil and the wastefulness of this decorative stuff1 and spend their money on really beautiful and artistic things1 so ,i think the same often-repeated knots and frivolous patterns must leave the artistic garden1 and simpler and dignified forms take their place4 ,to endeavour to apply any one preconceived plan or general idea to every site is folly1 and the source of many blunders4 ,the authors are not blind to the absurdities of the architectural gardeners1 and say1 on page #bcb3-- ,rows of statues were introduced from the ,french1 costly architecture superseded the simple terrace1 intricate parterres were laid out from gardeners' pattern books1 and meanwhile the flowers were forgotten4 ,it was well that all this pomp should be swept away4 ,we do not want this extravagant statuary1 these absurdities in clipped work1 this aggressive prodigality4 ,but though one would admit that in its decay the formal garden became unmanageable and absurd1 the abuse is no argument against the use4 ,certainly not where the place calls for it1 and all absolutely necessary stone-work about a house should be controlled by the architect2 beyond that1 nothing4 ,to let him lay out our home landscapes again with lines of trees1 as shown in the old ,dutch books1 and with no regard to landscape design and to the relations of the garden to the surrounding country1 would be the greatest evil that could come to the beautiful home landscapes of ,britain4 ,illustration3 ,old ,place1 ,lindfield4 ,picturesque garden of old ,english house1 admitting of charming variety in its vegetation ,,time ,,and ,,gardens ,not one word of the swift worker1 ,time6 ,its effect on gardens is one of the first considerations4 ,fortress-town1 castle1 and moat all without further use6 ,in old days gardens had to be set within the walls2 hence1 formal in outline1 though often charming inside4 ,to keep all that remains of such should be our first care2 never to imitate them now6 ,many old gardens of this sort that remain to us are far more beautiful than the modern formal gardening1 which by a strange perversity has been kept naked of plants or flower life6 ,when safety came from civil war1 then came to us the often beautiful ,elizabethan house1 free of all moat or trace of war4 ,at one time it was rash to make a garden away from the protecting walls4 ,now1 any day in a country place beautiful situations may be found for certain kinds of gardens far away from the house1 out of sight of it often4 ,illustration3 ,arundel ,castle4 ,example of situation in which a certain amount of terracing is essential4 ,this does not necessarily mean that the vegetation around should be in formal lines1 as much better and more artistic effects are obtained otherwise ,again1 in the home fighting days there was less art away from the home4 ,rugged wastes and hills2 vast woodland districts near ,london2 even small houses moated to keep the cattle from wolves--fear of the rough hills and woods6 ,in those days an extension of the decorative work of the house into the garden had some novelty to carry it off1 while the kinds of cultivated trees and shrubs were few4 ,hence if the old gardeners wanted an evergreen line1 hedge1 or bush of a certain height1 they clipped an evergreen tree into the size they wanted4 ,notwithstanding this we have no evidence that anything like the geometrical monotony often seen in our own time existed then4 ,to-day the ever-growing city1 pushing its hard face over the once beautiful land1 should make us wish more and more to keep such beauty of the earth as may be still possible to us4 ,the horror of railway embankments1 where were once the beautiful suburbs of ,london1 cries to us to save all we can save of the natural beauty of the earth4 ,illustration3 ,tailpiece ,,true ,,use ,,of ,a ,,garden ,it is surely flying in the face of ,nature to fill our gardens with tropical plants1 as we are urged to do by the writers on landscape gardening1 ignoring the entire difference of climate and the fact that a colour which may look superb in the midst of other strong colours will look gaudy and vulgar amongst our sober tints1 and that a leaf like that of the ,yucca1 which may be all very well in its own country1 is out of scale and character amidst the modest foliage of our ,english trees4 7,the ,formal ,garden47 ,a passage full of nonsense6 ,the true use and first reason of a garden is to keep and grow for us plants not in our woods and mostly from other countries than our own6 ,the ,yucca1 we are told by the authors1 is a plant out of scale and character among the modest foliage of our ,english trees6 ,the ,yuccas of our gardens are natives of the often cold plains of ,eastern ,america1 hardy in1 and in every way fitted for1 ,english gardens1 but not amidst ,english trees4 ,is the aim of the flower-garden to show the modest foliage of ,english trees when almost every country house is surrounded by our native woods8 ,according to such childish views1 the noble ,cedars in the park at ,goodwood and on the lawn at ,pain's ,hill are out of place there6 ,what is declared by ,mr4 ,blomfield to be absurd is the soul of true gardening--to show1 on a small scale it may be1 some of the precious and inexhaustible loveliness of vegetation on plain or wood or mountain4 ,this is the necessary and absolutely only true1 just and fair use of a garden6 ,illustration3 ,west ,dean4 ,example of country seat in which terracing is needless1 and in which turf may and indeed must often come to at least one side of the house ,,formal ,,gardening ,the very name of the book is a mistake4 ,formal gardening is rightly applied only to the gardens in which both the design and planting were formal and stupidly formal like the upper terrace of the ,crystal ,palace1 ,kensington ,gore1 as laid out by ,nesfield1 ,crewe ,hall2 and ,shrubland1 as laid out by ,barry1 in which1 as in others of these architects' gardens1 strict orders were given that no plants were to be allowed on the walls4 ,the architect was so proud of his design1 that he did not want the gardener at all1 except to pound up bricks to take the place of flower colour6 ,it may be necessary to explain to some that this pounded brick and tile in lieu of colours has frequently been laid down in flower-gardens in our own day4 ,to old gardens like ,haddon and ,rockingham1 in which the vegetation about the house is perfectly free and natural in form1 the term formal gardening is quite unfitted4 ,but those who attack the old ,english formal garden do not take the trouble to understand its very considerable differences from the ,continental gardens of the same period4 ,no one has attacked old ,english gardens4 ,part of my work has been to preserve much record of their beauty4 ,the necessary terraces round houses like ,haddon may be and are as beautiful as any garden ever made by man4 ,can anything be more unlike than the delicate veil of beautiful climbers and flowers over the grey walls of the courtyard at ,ightham ,mote and the walls of some gardens of our own day8 ,the great dark rock-like feudal ,berkeley is clad with ,fig and ,vine and ,rose as far as they can reach4 ,no trace in these old gardens of the modern landscape architect1 who said1 ,my walls are not made for plants1 and for my beds ,i prefer coloured brick6 ,illustration3 ,athelhampton ,hall1 ,dorset4 ,old ,english house with trees in their natural form ,what1 then1 is the kind of ,formal ,gardening that is bad8 ,it is the purely formal or stone garden made for its own sake1 often without a shadow of excuse4 ,the garden of the ,crystal ,palace in part2 the stone garden at the head of the ,serpentine2 ,versailles2 the ,grand ,trianon2 ,caserta1 ,schoenbrunn are among the public gardens of ,europe where this kind of garden is seen4 ,great harm has come to many a fair ,english lawn through this system4 ,let us learn by one instance1 easily seen1 the harm done in formal gardening1 even where the ground called for an amount of terracing not usual in the plains and mostly gentle lawns of ,england--,i mean the flower-garden at ,shrubland ,park1 laid out by ,sir ,charles ,barry1 of which ,i have recently altered the plan and which ,i planted with graceful life where ,i found bare walls4 ,we will assume that the main terrace lines here are right1 as the place stands on a bluff1 and speak of a secondary evil of this formal gardening1 which arose1 ,i think1 about the time ,barry laid out ,shrubland4 ,that was that the walls of the house or garden were not to be graced by plants1 and that to secure the keeping of the design1 coloured gravels were to take the place of flowers4 ,this rule1 as is well known1 has been carried out in many gardens--it was rigid here4 ,i see it in some of the new gardens1 and in asking at ,worth ,park why a long terra-cotta wall had not climbers on it1 was told the designer would not allow it6 ,yet ,nature clothes the rock walls with beautiful life1 even to the snow line1 where the gems of the flower world stain the rocks with loveliest flowers4 ,the crag walls of every alpine valley are her gardens2 the ,harebells toss their azure bells from the seams of the stones in the bridges across the mountain streams2 the ruins of the temples of the great peoples of old1 who really could build nobly1 grow many a wild flower4 ,even when we take the stone and build with it1 tender colours of lowly plants soon come and clothe the stone4 ,but the maker of these miserable garden walls1 without use or need1 says in effect1 ,here ,nature shall not come to hide my cleverness4 ,i have built walls1 and bare they must be6 ,well1 with this bareness of the wall there were the usual geometrical pattern beds1 many filled with sand and broken stone1 and only very low and formal beds of flowers pinched into very low carpets1 with much ,box often edging beds a foot across4 ,when ,i first went one spring day with ,mr4 ,saumarez1 we saw a large showy bed1 and on going near1 found it composed of pieces of broken brick painted yellow1 blue1 and red6 ,so1 apart from needless formality of design and bare walls where no walls were wanted1 there was often an ugly formality of detail1 a senseless attempt to leave ,nature out of the garden1 an outrage against all that ever has or ever can make a garden delightful throughout the year by ruling that even the walls of the house should not shelter a ,rose6 ,and that is only part of what we get by letting builders and decorators waste precious means in stone that should be devoted to the living treasures of garden1 lawn1 or wood4 ,illustration3 ,the formal garden1 with its insistence on strong bounding lines1 is1 strictly speaking1 the only garden possible4--,r4 ,f4 ,,blomfield ,the ,vicarage ,garden1 ,odiham4 ,one of numerous ,british gardens in which the conditions here declared to be essential are absent ,,nature ,,and ,,what ,,we ,,mean ,,by ,,it ,as to a natural school of landscape gardening1 the authors say3 ,a great deal is said about ,nature and her beauty1 and fidelity to ,nature1 and so on2 but as the landscape gardener never takes the trouble to state precisely what he means by ,nature1 and1 indeed1 prefers to use the word in half a dozen different senses1 we are not very much the wiser so far as principles are concerned4 ,they make this statement as if all beautiful natural landscape were a closed book2 as if there were no stately ,yews1 in natural forms1 on the ,merrow ,downs1 as well as clipped ,yews at ,elvaston2 as if the tree-fringed mountain lawns of ,switzerland did not exist2 or lovely evergreen glades on the ,californian mountains1 or wild ,azalea gardens on those of ,carolina1 or even naturally-grown ,planes in ,london squares4 ,there are many gardens and parks which clearly show what is meant by the natural style2 and though1 like others1 this art is too often imperfect1 we have so many instances of its success1 that it is curious to find any one shutting his eyes to them4 ,there are lessons in picturesque gardening in every country in ,europe and in many parts of ,north ,america4 ,mr4 ,olmstead's work in ,america and ,mr4 ,robert ,marnock's in ,england teach them2 they may be learnt in many ,english gardens--from ,sir ,richard ,owen's little garden in ,richmond ,park to ,dunkeld--even small rectory and cottage gardens1 wholly free of architectural aids1 show the principle4 ,it was but a few weeks ago1 in the garden of the ,english ,embassy in ,paris1 that ,i was struck with the simplicity of the lawn and plan of the garden there1 and its fitness for a house in a city4 ,to support their idea that there is and can be no natural school of landscape gardening1 the authors suppose what does not exist1 and describe ,a piece of ground laid out with a studied avoidance of all order1 all balance1 all definite lines1 and the result a hopeless disagreement between the house and its surroundings4 ,this very effect can be seen in the efforts of the landscape gardener1 and in old country houses1 such as ,barrington ,court1 near ,langport1 where the gardens have not been kept up4 ,here1 instead of taking one of the many good examples in ,britain1 they take poor1 beautiful old ,barrington1 now an ill-kept farmhouse1 with manure piled against the walls and the ceiling of the dining-room propped up with a ,fir pole6 ,the foolish proposition here laid down1 that1 because a garden is picturesque there must necessarily be a studied avoidance of all order1 all balance1 all definite lines1 is disproved by hundreds of gardens in ,england4 ,why did not the authors take ,miss ,alice de ,rothschild's garden at ,eythorpe1 or any beautiful and picturesque ,english garden1 to compare with their results in stone and clipped and aligned trees8 ,illustration3 ,unclipped trees at the ,little ,trianon4 7,compare with cut on p4 #eb47 ,,all ,,our ,,paths ,,are ,,crooked6 ,for instance1 because ,nature is assumed never to show straight lines1 all paths are to be made crooked2 because in a virgin forest there are no paths at all1 let us in our acre and a half of garden make as little of the paths as possible4 ,deception is a primary object of the landscape gardener4 7,the ,formal ,garden47 ,this1 too1 in the face of the facts of the case1 of proof ready for the authors1 in gardens in every country1 from ,prospect ,park at ,brooklyn to the ,english park at ,munich4 ,the fact that the ,phoenix ,park at ,dublin is laid out in a fine1 picturesque way does not forbid a great straight road through it--a road finer than in any strait-laced park in ,france4 ,the late ,robert ,marnock was the best landscape gardener ,i have known1 and ,i never saw one of his many gardens where he did not make an ample straight walk where an ample straight walk was required--as1 indeed1 many may remember is the case in the ,botanic ,gardens in the ,regent's ,park1 laid out by him4 ,again1 ,nature is said to prefer a curved line to a straight1 and it is thence inferred that all the lines in a garden1 and especially paths1 should be curved4 ,the utter contempt for design of the landscape gardener is shown most conspicuously in his treatment of paths4 ,he lays them about at random1 and keeps them so narrow that they look like threads1 and there is barely room to walk abreast4 ,the opposite of this is indeed the truth1 for many gardens and parks laid out with some regard to landscape beauty are partly spoiled by the size and number of the walks1 as in the gardens around ,paris--the ,parc ,monceau and ,buttes ,chaumont1 for instance4 ,the slightest knowledge of gardens would show that walks like threads are no necessary part of landscape gardening6 ,illustration3 ,westonbirt ,this error shows well the effect of men reading and writing about what they have not seen4 ,the axiom on which landscape gardening rests is declared by ,messrs4 ,blomfield and ,thomas to be ,whatever ,nature does is right2 therefore let us go and copy her 7p4 #e74 ,here is a poor sneer at true art1 not only at art in landscape gardening1 but in all the fine arts4 ,the central and essential idea of the landscape art is choice of what is beautiful--not taking the salt waste in ,utah1 or a field of weeds1 or a ,welsh slope of decayed slate1 or the bog of ,allen1 or the thousand other things in ,nature that are monotonous or dull to us1 even though here and there beautiful as a wide bog may be4 ,we can have in a garden a group of ,scotch ,firs as good in form as a fine group in wild ,nature1 and so of the ,cedar of ,lebanon and many of the lovely trees of the world4 ,we can have bits of rock alive with alpine flowers1 or pieces of lawn fringed with trees in their natural forms and as graceful as the alpine lawns on the ,jura4 ,so of all other true art4 ,the ,venus of ,milo is from a noble type of woman--not a mean ,greek4 ,the horses of the ,parthenon are the best types of ,eastern breed1 full of life and beauty1 not sickly beasts4 ,great landscape painters like ,corot1 ,turner1 and ,troyon show us in their work the absurdity of this statement so impertinently used4 ,they seek not ugly things because they are natural1 but beautiful combinations of field1 and hill1 wood1 water1 tree1 and flower1 and grass1 selecting groupings which go to make good composition1 and then waiting for the most beautiful effects of morning1 evening1 or whatever light suits the chosen subject best1 so give us lovely pictures6 ,but they work always from faithful study of ,nature and from stores of knowledge gathered from ,nature study1 and that is the only true path for the landscape gardener2 as all true and great art can only be based on the eternal laws of ,nature4 ,,the ,,only ,,garden ,,possible6 ,the word garden itself means an enclosed space1 a garth or yard surrounded by walls1 as opposed to unenclosed fields and woods4 ,the formal garden1 with its insistence on strong bounding lines1 is1 strictly speaking1 the only garden possible4 ,all other gardens are1 of course1 impossible to the authors--the ,parc ,monceau1 the informal gardens about ,paris1 ,glasnevin1 the ,botanic ,gardens in ,regent's ,park and at ,sheffield1 ,golder's ,hill1 ,greenlands1 ,pendell ,court1 ,rhianva1 and the thousand cottage1 rectory1 and other ,british gardens where no wall is seen6 ,the ,bamboo garden at ,shrubland1 the ,primrose garden at ,munstead1 the rock and other gardens1 which we must keep in quiet places away from any sight of walls1 are all impossible to these authors6 ,how much better it would be for every art if it were impossible for men to write about things of which by their own showing they have not even elementary knowledge6 ,illustration3 ,thrumpton ,hall4 ,a type of numerous ,english gardens with informal planting ,and the sketches in the book show us what these possible gardens are6 ,they are careful architects' drawings1 deficient in light and shade2 not engraved1 but reproduced by a hard process1 some being mere reproductions of old engravings2 and diagrams of old knots and patterns1 with birds and ships perched on wooden trellises1 without the slightest reference to any human or modern use4 ,a curious one of ,badminton will show fully the kind of plan the authors wish to see revived4 ,some of the illustrations show the evils of the system which the authors advocate1 notably one of ,levens ,hall1 ,westmoreland1 a very interesting and real old garden4 ,interesting as it is from age1 the ugliness of the clipped forms takes away from the beauty of the house4 ,even in sketches of gardens like ,montacute and ,brympton1 the beauty of the gardens is not well shown4 ,the most interesting drawings1 it is not surprising to find1 are the informal ones6 ,many of the others show the evil1 not the good1 of the system advocated1 by their hard lines and the emphasising of ugly forms4 ,,no ,,design ,,in ,,landscape ,horticulture stands to garden design much as building does to architecture4 ,this book has been written entirely from the standpoint of the designer1 and therefore contains little or no reference to the actual methods of horticulture4 ,throughout the book it is modestly assumed that there can be no design in anything but in lines of stone1 and clipped trees to harmonise with the stone1 and to bring in order and balance4 ,a ,longleat1 ,highclere or ,little ,trianon1 or any of the many ,english places which are planted in picturesque ways can show no design2 but a ,french town1 with its wretched lines of tortured ,limes1 is pure and broad in design4 ,the naivete of the book in this respect is often droll4 ,one amusing passage is on p4 #ed3-- ,however rich the details1 there is no difficulty in grasping the principle of a garden laid out in an equal number of rectangular plots4 ,everything is straightforward and logical2 you are not bored with hopeless attempts to master the bearings of the garden4 ,this is the kitchen gardener's view1 and that of the market gardener of all countries1 but the fun is in calling the idea of it grasping a principle6 ,at this rate makers of chessboards have strong claims to artistic merit6 ,no wonder that men who call a principle the common way of setting out kitchen and cabbage gardens from ,pekin to ,mortlake can see no design in the many things that go to make a beautiful landscape6 ,equally stupid is the assumption1 throughout the book1 that the people the authors are pleased to term landscapists flop their houses down in the ,grass1 and never use low walls for dividing lines1 nor terraces where necessary1 never use walls for shelter or privacy1 have no order or balance1 and presumably allow the ,nettles to look in at the windows1 and the cattle to have a fine time with the ,carnations6 ,illustration3 ,tailpiece ,,no ,,grass ,,in ,,landscape ,,gardening6 ,the following glaring piece of injustice is due to want of the most elementary consideration of garden design3-- ,grass-work as an artistic quantity can hardly be said to exist in landscape gardening4 ,it is there considered simply as so much background to be broken up with shrubs and ,pampas ,grass and irregular beds 7p4 #ace74 ,the opposite of this is the fact4 ,grass-work as an artistic quantity did not exist in anything like the same degree before landscape gardening4 ,one of the faults of the formal style of gardening still seen in ,france and ,austria is that there is little or no ,grass4 ,compare the ,jardin des ,plantes in ,paris with the ,parc ,monceau1 or the many other gardens about ,paris in which ,grass is an artistic quantity4 ,one of the most effective reasons indeed for adopting the ,english landscape garden was that it gave people some fresh and open ,grass1 often with picturesque surroundings1 and1 nowadays1 one can hardly travel on the continent and not see some pleasant results of this4 ,in ,england1 the landscape gardeners and writers have almost destroyed every trace of the stiff old formal gardens1 and we cannot judge the ill effects of the builder's garden so easily as in ,france4 ,as a rule1 the want of rest and freshness in tropical and sub-tropical gardens is due to the absence of those broad and airy breadths of greensward which1 in gardens at least1 are largely due to landscape gardening4 ,think of ,warwick without its turf and glorious untrimmed ,cedars6 ,illustration3 ,goodwood4 ,example of large ,english places in which the grass sweeps up to the house ,consider the difference between a picturesque landscape like the ,emperor of ,austria's stately garden at ,laxenberg1 near ,vienna1 and the gardens in the same city formed of miserable clipped trees in lines6 ,grass as an artistic quantity is finely visible at ,laxenberg2 in the old clipped gardens gravel and distorted trees are the only things seen in quantity--we cannot call it artistic4 ,landscapist is used throughout the book as a term of contempt4 ,the authors take some of the worst work that is possible1 and condemn all in the same opprobrious terms1 as if we were to condemn the noble art of the builders of the ,parthenon on seeing a jerry building in ,london4 ,they may be quite sure that there is a true and beautiful art of landscape gardening1 notwithstanding their denunciations1 and it is none the less real because there is no smug definition of it that pleases the minds of men who declare that it does not exist4 ,the horticulturist and the gardener are indispensable1 but they should work under control1 and they stand in the same relation to the designer as the artist's colourman does to the painter1 or1 perhaps it would be fairer to say1 as the builder and his workmen stand to the architect4 ,what modesty6 ,the men whose business it is to design gardens are heartily abused4 ,how very graceful it would be on the part of one of them to write an essay telling architects how to build1 and showing that to build well it is not necessary to know anything about the inhabitants or uses of a house6 ,,improving ,,battersea ,,park6 ,perhaps after the cemetery1 the ugliest things in the fair land of ,france are the ugly old lines of clipped ,limes which deface many ,french towns4 ,readers who have not seen these things can have no idea of their abominable hardness and ugliness1 the natural form of the trees being destroyed1 and deformed and hideous trees resulting from constant clipping4 ,these gouty lines of clipped trees are praised as noble walls pure and broad in design1 while ,such a place1 for instance1 as ,battersea ,park is like a bad piece of architecture1 full of details which stultify each other4 ,the only good point in it is the one avenue1 and this leads to nowhere4 ,if this park had been planted out with groves and avenues of ,limes1 like the boulevard at ,avallon1 or the squares at ,vernon1 or even like the east side of ,hyde ,park between the ,achilles statue and the ,marble ,arch1 at least one definite effect would have been reached4 ,there might have been shady walks1 and noble walls of trees1 instead of the spasmodic futility of ,battersea ,park4 ,battersea ,park1 like many others1 may be capable of improvement2 but here we have men who want to supplant its lawns1 grassy playgrounds1 and pretty retired gardens with ,lime trees like those of a ,french town1 and lines and squares of trees like those at ,vernon1 which ,i once saw half bare of leaves long before the summer was over6 ,illustration3 ,avenue in ,paris4 ,showing that even in a land of clipped trees clipping is not essential ,the authors see with regret that the good sense of planters has for many years been gradually emancipated from the style 7as old as the ,romans and older7 of planting in rows4 ,it was the very early and in a very real sense a barbarous way4 ,since the days when country places were laid out in a number of rectangular plots1 whole worlds of lovely things have come to us--to give one instance only1 the trees of ,california1 ,oregon1 and the ,rocky ,mountains4 ,for men to talk of designing homes for such things1 who say they have no knowledge of them1 is absurdity itself6 ,illustration3 ,clipped trees at the ,little ,trianon ,an unerring perception told the ,greeks that the beautiful must also be the true1 and recalled them back into the way4 ,as in conduct they insisted on an energy which was rational1 so in art and in literature they required of beauty that it1 too1 should be before all things rational4--,,professor ,,butcher1 in ,some ,aspects of the ,greek ,genius4 ,,nature ,,and ,,clipped ,,yews ,the remarks quoted below on ,nature and the clipping shears are not from ,josh ,billings1 but from ,the ,formal ,garden1 of which the literary merit1 we are told in the preface1 belongs to ,mr4 ,blomfield4 ,a clipped ,yew tree is as much a part of ,nature--that is1 subject to natural laws--as a forest ,oak2 but the landscapist1 by appealing to associations which surround the personification of ,nature1 holds up the clipped ,yew tree to obloquy as something against ,nature4 ,so far as that goes1 it is no more unnatural to clip a ,yew tree than to cut ,grass4 ,i believe we cut ,grass when we want hay1 or soft turf to play on1 but disfiguring a noble tree is not a necessary part of our work either for our profit or pleasure4 ,perhaps1 as is probable1 ,mr4 ,blomfield has never noticed what a beautiful tree a ,yew in its natural form is4 ,it is not only on the hills he may see them4 ,if he will come and see them in my own garden in a high wind some day1 or when bronzed a little with a hard winter1 he may change his amusing notions about clipped ,yews4 ,i think ,i can give ,mr4 ,blomfield a rational explanation of why it is foolish to clip so fair a tree or any tree4 ,i clip ,yews when ,i want to make a hedge of them1 but then ,i am clipping a hedge1 and not a tree4 ,i hold up the clipped ,yew tree to obloquy1 as the tree in its natural form is the most beautiful evergreen tree of our western world--as fine as the ,cedar in its plumy branches1 and more beautiful than any ,cedar in the colour of its stem4 ,in our own day we have seen trees of the same great order as the ,yew gathered from a thousand hills--from ,british ,columbia1 through ,north ,america and ,europe to the ,atlas ,mountains1 and not one of them has yet proved to be so beautiful as our native ,yew when it is allowed to grow unclipped root or branch4 ,but in gardens the quest for the strange and exotic is so constant1 that few give a fair chance to the ,yew as a tree1 while in graveyards where it is so often seen in a very old state1 the frequent destruction of the roots in grave-digging prevents the tree from reaching its full stature and beauty1 though there are ,yews in ,english churchyards that have lived through a thousand winters4 ,illustration3 ,the ,grange1 ,hartley ,wintney ,i do not clip my ,yews1 because clipping destroys the shape of one of the most delightful in form of all trees1 beautiful1 too1 in its plumy branching4 ,it is not my own idea only that ,i urge here1 but that of all who have ever thought of form1 foremost among whom we must place artists who have the happiness of always drawing natural forms4 ,let ,mr4 ,blomfield stand near one of the ,cedar-like ,yews by the ,pilgrim's ,way on the ,north ,downs1 and1 comparing it with trees cut in the shape of an extinguisher1 consider what the difference means to the artist who seeks beauty of form4 ,clipping such trees does not merely deserve obloquy2 it is worse than idiotic1 as there is a sad reason for the idiot's ways4 ,if ,i use what in the ,surrey nurseries are called hedging ,yews to form a hedge1 high or low1 ,i must clip them to form my hedge1 and go on doing so if ,i wish to keep it1 or the hedge would soon show me that it was subject to natural laws1 and escape from the shears4 ,what right have we to deform things given us so perfect and lovely in form8 ,no cramming of ,chinese feet into impossible shoes is half so wicked as the wilful distortion of the divinely beautiful forms of trees4 ,the cost of this hideous distortion alone is one reason against it1 as one may soon find out in places where miles of trees cut into wall-like shape have to be clipped1 as at ,versailles and ,schoenbrunn6 ,this clipping is a mere survival of the day when gardens had very few trees1 and it was necessary to clip the few they had to fit certain situations to conform to the architect's notion of garden design4 ,this is not design at all from any landscape point of view2 and though the elements which go to form beautiful landscape1 whether home landscape or the often higher landscape beauty of the open country1 are often subtle1 and though they are infinitely varied1 they are none the less real4 ,the fact that men when we had few trees clipped them into walls and grotesque shapes to make them serve their notions of design is surely not a reason why we1 who have the trees of a thousand hills with trees of almost every size and shape among them1 should violate and mutilate some of the finest natural forms6 ,illustration3 ,a ,yew ,tree on ,mountain1 ,n4 ,england ,thus while it may be right to clip a tree to form a wall1 dividing-line1 or hedge1 it is never so to clip trees grown as single specimens or groups1 as by clipping such we only get ugly forms--unnatural1 too4 ,last autumn1 in ,hyde ,park1 ,i saw a man clipping ,hollies at the ,rotten ,row end of the ,serpentine1 and asking him why it was done1 he said it was to keep them in shape1 though1 to do him justice1 he added that he thought it would be better to let them alone4 ,men who clip so handsome a tree as the ,holly when taking no part in a hedge or formal line are blind to beauty of form4 ,to tolerate such clipped forms is to prove oneself callous to natural beauty of tree form1 and to show that we cannot even see ugliness4 ,illustration3 ,building in ,paris4 ,showing that intimate association with buildings does not necessitate clipping or distortion of trees ,take1 again1 the clipped ,laurels by which many gardens and drives are disfigured4 ,laurel in its natural shape in the woods of west country or other places1 where it is let alone1 is often fine in form1 though we may have too much of it4 ,but it is planted everywhere without thought of its stature or fitness for the spot1 and then it grows until the shears are called in1 and we see nearly every day its fine leaves and free shoots cut short back into ugly banks and sharp1 wall-like1 or formless masses1 disfiguring many gardens without the slightest necessity4 ,there is no place in which it is used clipped for which we could not get shrubs quite suitable that would not need mutilation4 ,it is not only clipped trees that are ugly1 but even trees like the ,irish ,yew1 ,wellingtonia1 and some ,arbor-vitae1 which frequently assume shapes like extinguishers or the forms of clipped trees4 ,it often happens that these1 when over-planted or planted near houses1 so emphasise ugly forms about the house1 that there is no beauty possible in the home landscape4 ,many of such ugly1 formless trees have been planted within the last generation1 greatly to the injury of the garden landscape4 ,in the old gardens1 where1 from other motives1 trees were clipped when people had very few ,evergreens or shrubs of any kind1 or where they wanted an object of a certain height1 they had to clip4 ,it is well to preserve such gardens1 but never to imitate them1 as has been done in various ,english and ,american gardens4 ,if we want shelter1 we can get it in various delightful ways without clipping1 and1 while getting it1 we can enjoy the beautiful natural forms of the finest ,evergreens4 ,hedges and wall-like dividing lines of green living things will now and then be useful1 and even may be artistically used2 they are sometimes1 however1 used where a wall would be better1 walls having the great advantage of not robbing the ground near4 ,a wall is easily made into a beautiful garden with so many lovely things1 too1 from great scrambling yellow ,roses to alpine flowers4 ,to any one with the slightest sympathy with ,nature or art these things need not be said4 ,,no ,,line ,,in ,,nature6 ,now as a matter of fact in ,nature--that is1 in the visible phenomena of the earth's surface--there are no lines at all2 a line is simply an abstraction which conveniently expresses the direction of a succession of objects which may be either straight or curved4 ,nature has nothing to do with either straight lines or curved2 it is simply begging the question to lay it down as an axiom that curved lines are more natural than straight4 ,then men must never again talk of the lines of a ship6 ,perhaps ,mr4 ,blomfield would accept a plumb line8 ,one can hardly leave ,london an hour before a person who looks at the landscape may see the lines or boundaries between one mass and another4 ,who could stand amongst downs or an alpine valley and say there are no lines in them1 inasmuch as one of the most visible and delightful things in all such cases is the beauty of those lines8 ,this is the key of the whole question of landscape gardening4 ,there is no good landscape gardening possible without a feeling for the natural gradation and forms of the earth4 ,it can be seen in little things1 like the slope of a field as well as in the slope of a mountain1 and it is the neglect of this which leaves us so little to boast of in landscape work4 ,in a country slightly diversified it is1 of course1 more important than in a perfectly flat one1 but in all diversified ground no good landscape work can be done without regarding the natural gradation of the earth1 which will often tell us what to do4 ,it is blindness to this principle which makes so many people cut their roads and walks crudely through banks1 leaving straight sharp sides--false lines1 in fact--when a little care and observation would have avoided this and given a true and beautiful line for a road or walk4 ,once the necessary levels are settled and the garden walks by straight walls about the house are got away from1 we soon come to ground which1 whether we treat it rightly or not1 will at once show whether the work done be landscape work or not4 ,no plan1 it seems to me1 is so good as keeping to the natural form of the earth in all lawn1 pleasure ground1 and plantation work4 ,roads1 paths1 fences1 plantations1 and anything like wood will be all the better if we are guided by natural lines or forms1 taking advantage of every difference of level and every little accident of the ground for our dividing lines and other beginnings or endings4 ,in the absence of any guidance of this sort1 what we see is brutal cutting through banks1 lines like railway embankments--without the justification there is for the sharpness of a railway embankment--and ugly banks to roads1 very often ugly in their lines too4 ,if we are ever to have a school of true landscape gardening1 the study and observation of the true gradation of the earth must be its first task4 ,illustration3 ,broadlands1 ,hants ,,vegetable ,,sculpture#b #b ,garden ,craft1 ,old and ,new4 ,by ,john ,d4 ,sedding4 ,london3 ,kegan ,paul1 ,trench1 ,truebner and ,co4 ,this gentleman1 unfortunately without any knowledge of plants1 trees1 or landscape beauty1 launches out into the dreary sea of quotations from old books about gardens1 and knows so little of where he is going1 that he is put out of his course by every little drift of wind4 ,one goes through chapter after chapter thinking to get to the end of the weary matter only to find again nothing but quotations1 even to going back to an old book for a song4 ,when at last we come to a chapter on ,art in the ,garden1 this is what is offered us as sense on a charming subject1 familiar to many1 so that all may judge of the depth of this foolish talk about it6 ,such a writer discussing in this way a metaphysical or obscure subject might swim on in his inky water for ever1 and no one know where he was6 ,let us here point to the fact1 that any garden whatsoever is but ,nature idealised1 pastoral scenery rendered in a fanciful manner4 ,it matters not what the date1 size1 or style of the garden1 it represents an idealisation of ,nature4 ,real nature exists outside the artist and apart from him4 ,the ,ideal is that which the artist conceives to be an interpretation of the outside objects1 or that which he adds to the objects4 ,the garden gives imaginative form to emotions the natural objects have awakened in man4 ,the raison d'etre of a garden is man's feeling the ensemble4 ,but we cannot allow him to bring the false and confusing art drivel of the day into the garden without showing the absurdity of his ideas4 ,illustration3 ,warren ,house1 ,coombe ,wood ,the illustrations are of the most wretched kind produced by some process1 the only interesting one being one of ,levens4 ,the most childish ideas of the garden prevail--indeed we hardly like to call them childish1 because children do put sensible questions and see clearly4 ,for instance1 for the author there is no art in gardening at all--the art consists entirely of building walls and planting ,yew hedges4 ,thus the work of the late ,james ,backhouse1 who knew every flower on the hills of ,northern ,england1 and expressed that knowledge in his charming rock garden1 is not art1 but cutting a tree into the shape of a cocked hat is art1 according to ,mr4 ,sedding6 ,he assumes that landscape gardeners all follow artistic ways1 and that only architects make terraces2 whereas the greatest sinners in this respect have been landscape gardeners--,nesfield and ,paxton4 ,he has paid so little attention to the subject1 that he says that the landscape gardener's only notion is to put ,grass all around the house6 ,it does not even occur to him that there may be ,grass on one side of a house and gardens of various sorts at the others1 as at ,goodwood1 ,shrubland1 ,knole1 and that a house may have at each side a different expression of landscape gardening6 ,illustration3 ,drummond ,castle4 ,example of beautiful garden in ,scotland1 in position requiring terracing ,he takes the ,english ,flower ,garden as the expression of landscape gardening practice2 whereas the book1 in all the parts that treat of design1 is a protest against the formation by landscape gardeners of costly things which have nothing to do with gardening and nothing to do with true architecture4 ,the good architect is satisfied with building a beautiful house1 and that we are all the happier for4 ,but what we have to deplore is that men who are not really architects1 who are not gardeners1 should cover the earth with rubbish like the ,crystal ,palace basins1 the thing at the top of the ,serpentine1 and the ,grand ,trianon at ,versailles4 ,here is a specimen of ,mr4 ,sedding's knowledge of the landscape art4 ,for the landscape style does not countenance a straight line1 or terrace1 or architectural form1 or symmetrical beds about the house1 for to allow these would not be to photograph ,nature4 ,as carried into practice1 the style demands that the house shall rise abruptly from the ,grass1 and the general surface of the ground shall be characterised by smoothness and bareness 7like ,nature674 ,if he had even taken the trouble to see a good garden laid out by ,mr4 ,marnock or anybody worthy of the name of landscape gardener1 he would find that they knew the use of the terrace very well4 ,if he had taken the trouble to see one of my own gardens1 he would find beds quite as formal1 but not so frivolous as those described in the older books1 and lines simple and straight as they can be4 ,where ,barry left room for a dozen flowers at ,shrubland ,i put one hundred2 so much for the bareness6 ,illustration3 ,madresfield4 ,example of modern ,english garden ,on page #ahj he says3-- ,i have no more scruple in using the scissors upon tree or shrub1 where trimness is desirable1 than ,i have in mowing the turf of the lawn that once represented a virgin world4 ,there is a quaint charm in the results of the topiary art1 in the prim imagery of evergreens1 that all ages have felt4 ,and ,i would even introduce ,bizarreries on the principle of not leaving all that is wild and odd to ,nature outside of the garden paling2 and in the formal part of the garden my ,yews should take the shape of pyramids1 or peacocks1 or cocked hats1 or ramping lions in ,lincoln green1 or any other conceit ,i had a mind to1 which vegetable sculpture can take4 ,after reading this ,i saw again some of the true vegetable sculpture that ,i have been fortunate to see2 ,reed and ,lily1 a model for ever in stem1 leaf1 and bloom2 the grey ,willows of ,britain1 sometimes lovelier than ,olives against our skies2 many-columned ,oak groves set in seas of ,primroses1 ,cuckoo flowers and ,violets2 ,silver ,birch woods of ,northern ,europe beyond all grace possible in stone2 the eternal garland of beauty that one kind of ,palm waves for hundreds of miles throughout the land of ,egypt1--a vein of summer in a lifeless world3 the noble ,pine woods of ,california and ,oregon1 like fleets of colossal masts on mountain waves--saw again these and many other lovely forms in garden and woodland1 and then wondered that any one could be so blind to the beauty of plant and tree as to write as ,mr4 ,sedding does here4 ,from the days of the ,greeks to our own time1 the delight of all great artists has been to get as near this divine beauty as the material they work with permits4 ,but this deplorable vegetable sculptor's delight is in distorting beautiful natural forms2 and this in the one art in which we enjoy the living things themselves1 and not merely representations of them6 ,the old people from whom he takes his ideas were not nearly so foolish1 as when the ,yew tree was used as a shelter or a dividing line1 and when a ,yew was put at a garden door for shelter or to form a hedge1 it was necessary to clip it if it was not to get out of all bounds4 ,but here is a man delighting for its own sake in what he calls with such delicate feeling vegetable sculpture1 in cocked hats and ramping lions6 ,illustration3 ,tailpiece ,printed by ,r4 ,r4 ,clark1 ,edinburgh 99 99 99 99 99 ,,transcriber',s ,,note3 ,minor punctuation errors and inconsistent hyphenation have been corrected without comment4 ,all other variations in spelling and inconsistent hyphenation have been retained as they appear in the original book4