1 873-] REMARKS SUGGESTED BY A TOUR. 391 



known thing in gardening and garden design into a given space wliicli 

 may only be adapted for one or two properly carried out, is one of the 

 greatest monstrosities of the present day. The trying to copy in a 

 small garden what is only adapted for a large one, is productive of an 

 abortion. We heard this idea more completely floored by a single 

 remark than could have been accomplished by a day's argument, in the 

 case of a lady who, in the act of viewing a large garden and one of 

 singularly varied yet harmonious features, which, in as far as they were 

 artificial, the natural grounds had suggested, and all hemmed in by a 

 magnificent range of wild wood and hills, said, " We must just imitate 

 this as far as we can ; " she was replied to by a gentleman who knew 

 the utter folly of the attempt, " Yes, go home and put on a cart and 

 get in the mountains." JSTo remark could be more pithy and to the 

 point, as telling against the absurdity of spoiling any garden-site by 

 attempting those features in designing which natural position protests 

 against. 



Concentrating our remarks a little more, it appears to us that the 

 most objectionable thing in relation to small gardens is the entire 

 destruction of anything like repose in the attempt to crowd too 

 much into small policies. This vain attempt to copy from other and 

 quite opposite places every conceivable feature, where only one, or at 

 most a few, would be appropriate, fritters out of existence that easy 

 grace and repose which nothing else can make up for. From such 

 gardens it is a great relief to escape to the open common or park, to 

 look on a stately tree or graceful shrub standing free from some trum- 

 pery accompaniment which mars so much their beauty. Many illustra- 

 tions could be given of grounds that might otherwise be massive and 

 imposing, but which have been tortured into unmeaning mazes by a 

 crowd of intricate and puerile designs and combinations. Perhaps no 

 more striking illustration of the utter want of ease and repose in any 

 one portion of a garden could be cited than the Royal Hortictiltural 

 Gardens at South Kensington : viewed from any point that can be 

 chosen, there is not one single feature of ease and repose. The space 

 is besmeared all over with intricate designing, and it scarcely ranks in 

 respect of merit with a modern cemetery. In the centre of the Royal 

 Botanic in the Regent's Park, and looking either to or from the large 

 conservatory, there is, on the other hand, to be found that breadth and 

 repose, surrounded by easy and graceful lines, which to our mind is 

 worth a thousand gingerbread and misplaced designs. These remarks 

 are principally applicable to the main features of a place. To a cer- 

 tain extent the same principle holds good in the minor details of a 

 garden. As, for instance, in the laying down of a series of flower-beds 

 in the close vicinity of perhaps some previously established features in 



