60 FARMERS' INSTITUTES. 



and all the surroundings are geometric and formal. In this style we make 

 our walks and drives straight and we shear our evergreens. It is this style 

 of ornament which springs up first in a new country. The settler tires of 

 his irregular surroundings and almost unavoidably casts his premises into 

 regular figures. It is curious, also, that his grounds, if he pay any atten- 

 tion to ornament, will likely be a faint echo of the surrounding scenery. 

 If tiie scenery in his neighborhood is rocky and precipitious he will most 

 likely desire steep walks and piles of rocks. In fact the distinctive char- 

 acters of thi-ee peculiar countries have been impressed upon the artificial 

 method of laying out grounds, so that we speak of three schools of geometric 

 gardening. The Italian school is characterized by steep flights of stone steps 

 and massive walls in keeping with the broken character of the country. 

 The French school builds long and broad avenues, while the Dutch school 

 lays the foundations of ornamei:t in long and straight canals and low, grassy 

 terraces. The natural style of ornament has also received different inter- 

 pretations. It originated in England with a refined and rural-loving people, 

 and has spread wherever rural taste is exalted. With the advent of natural 

 gardening, all terraces and walls and fountains were destroyed, and no 

 ornament, save what nature chose to grant in an open field, was introduced 

 about residence. This was Kent's school. It was long ago superseded by 

 truer methods. The nearest approach to this school at present appears in 

 our bare and bleak farm premises. The bareness of Kent's school prepared 

 the way for a revolution in ornamention, and the Picturesqiie school ap- 

 peared. Now everything must be rough and uncouth in form — banks steep 

 and broken, old and decayed trees. The Picturesque had its day, people 

 tired of artificial wilderness, and Repton's school was ushered in. This took 

 the good qualities of Kent and the Picturesque and combined them to suit 

 individual circumstances. As it took different form upon different premises, 

 it required more skill in its management than did the old methods. But 

 there was one radical error in the teaching of Repton ; he advised the 

 planting of trees and other plants in thick clumps where they were to grow 

 unmolested. The weak were soon crowded out by the strong, the most 

 delicate and often the most beautiful could not exist. During the early 

 part of this century choice plants were introduced in great numbers from 

 foreign countries, and they could not be displayed to advantage in the 

 heterogeneous massing of Eepton's method. Hence arose in England the 

 so-called Gardenesque school, which, while it retained the leading features 

 inaugurated by Repton, scattered the plants over the lawn those of similar 

 sizes and shapes usually in the same or contiguous clumps. 



We find ourselves living in a fortunate age. Old methods and stereotyped 

 rules have fallen, chiefly because they have been put into practice. Our 

 ornamentation should be preeminently selective ; Ave should select the best 

 ideas wherever they may be found. AVe learn from the history of the art 

 that it is unsafe to follow fashion in ornamenting a home. Fashion may be 

 tolerated in dress or in manners, where a change can be made to suit the 

 whim, but in the permanent exterior adornment of a home we should beware 

 of vagaries. Fashion has cut amusing frolics of late in the colors of resi- 

 dences. The old fashion or custom of painting houses a glaring white has 

 given way to the squaw-like fashion of tricking out in incongruous red, 

 pea-green and squash-pie colors. We look for a speedy change of sentiment 

 iu this direction, and hope to see the neutral and less expensive drabs and 

 browns, which are never incongruous with themselves or their surroundings. 



