THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. 



varied gardens in Cornwall, which does not tell the same story to all 

 who have eyes to see and hearts to care for the thing itself, and not 

 merely for incoherent talk about it. The only sad thing is that such 

 words must be said again and again ; but we live in a time of much 

 printed fog about artistic things — the " New Art " and the " New 

 /Esthetic " ; " Evolution," which explains how everything comes from 

 nothing and goes back again to worse than nothing ; the sliding bog 

 of " realism and idealism " in which the phrasemonger may dance 

 around and say the same false thing ten times over ; and, last and 

 least of all among these imbecilities, the teaching that to form a 

 garden one had better know nothing of the things that should grow 

 in it, from the cedar of Lebanon to the violets of the mountain rocks. 

 This teaching is as false as any spoken or written thing can be ; 

 there is an absolute difference between the living gardens and con- 

 ventional designs dealing with dead matter, be it brick or stone, glass, 

 iron, or carpets. There is a difference in kind, and while any pupil in 

 an architect's office will get out a drawing for the kind of garden we 

 may see everywhere, the garden beautiful does not arise in that way. 

 It is the difference between life and death we have to think of, and 

 never to the end of time shall we get the garden beautiful formed or 

 planted save by men who know something of the earth and its flowers, 

 shrubs, and trees. I would much rather trust the first simple person, 

 who knew his ground and loved his work, to get a beautiful result 

 than any of those artificers. We have proof in the gardens of English 

 people abroad that were freed from the too facile plans of the " office " ; 

 far more beautiful gardens arise, as in the Isle of Madeira, where every 

 garden differs from its neighbour, and all are beautiful. So it is in 

 a less degree in our own island, where the more we get out of the 

 range of any one conventional idea for the garden the more beauty 

 and freshness and happy incident we see. 



