258 THE FLOEAL WORLD AND GARDEN GUIDE. 



that their forms confuse the eye, and their colours mingle in a 

 manner that makes an end of harmony and contrast together. The 

 bedding system, or, more properly, the promenade system, has ruined 

 thousands of gardens, while greatly increasing the cost and anxiety 

 of keeping tliem for a bizarre display of colour. Yet the possessors 

 of each spoilt garden experience a strange kind of joy — a sense of 

 freedom and the possibility of rest, when ushered into a green 

 garden, designed with taste, and kept with care. It is astonishing 

 how vast appears a limited space set out in turf and trees, if 

 judiciously accomplished ; and how much pleasure accompanies the 

 sense of being set at liberty, with room for several to walk and talk 

 together, without having to defile singly through narrow ways, or 

 raise the question inwardly who shall take the lead along the narrow 

 path. 



Turf and trees are the cheapest, most lasting, and most perma- 

 nently and manageably enjoyable of all the essential elements of an 

 elegant garden, and should have the first thought, whether in making 

 or improving one. That we do not proscribe flowers, none of 

 our readers need be informed ; all we contend for is, that, as a rule, 

 they should be subservient to the general scheme, just as coloured 

 decorations within the house are. Window curtains we must have, 

 but we do not cover our walls, pictures, and looking-glasses with 

 them ; and flowers we must have, but in their proper proportion to 

 all the rest of the essentials of a garden. In the foreground of a 

 lawn, a few bold flower-beds are usually appropriate and desirable, 

 and, if well furnished, enhance the brightness of the turf, warm up 

 the lovely shadows of the trees, and actually increase the apparent 

 space set apart for pleasure. But when beds are dotted everywhere, 

 when a scheme of a geometric kind is obtruded of far too great an 

 extent for the place, the boundaries contract upon it, the sense 

 of freedom is gone, quiet appears to be banished from the scene, for 

 colours are exciting — sometimes distracting, and quite antagonistic 

 to the enjoyment of quiet and rest. 



It has always been a conviction of ours that from every dwelling- 

 house situate within its own grounds, one set of windows should 

 look upon greenness, and that this view should extend over as great 

 a space as possible, consistent with the dimensions of the property. 

 In the case of houses built in blocks, on the skirts of roads, it is im- 

 possible to do this; but where the house is in the midst of the 

 enclosure, it can usually be done. Even in the case of a terrace, 

 where flowers are always appropriate, a few clumps, judiciously 

 placed, always produce a better eftect than a comjjlication. It is in 

 the public garden, where people pay to be astonished, that exube- 

 rance of colour is most appropriate ; but few amongst the thousands 

 that find delight in highly-decorated promenade-gardens, would care 

 to look upon such scenes constantly ; to have, as it were, a grand 

 bedding display for breakfast, dinner, and supper ; for times of 

 merriment and times of sadness alike ; for times of activity and times 

 of rest. No : greenness should form the foundation of the scheme, and 

 the flowers should be sufficient only to light it up, and mark out 

 points of distances, and give warmth and relief to quieter colours. 



