THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. 



lost. There are, from Versailles to Caserta, a great many ugly 

 gardens in Europe, but at Sydenham we have the greatest modern 

 example of the waste of enormous means in making hideous a 

 fine piece of ground. This has been called a work of genius, but 

 it is the fruit of a poor ambition to outdo another ugly extrava- 

 gance — Versailles. Versailles was the expression of such know- 

 ledge of the gardening art as men then possessed. As Versailles 

 has numerous tall fountains, the best way of glorifying ourselves 

 was to make some taller ones at Sydenham ! Instead of confining 

 the terrace gardening to the upper terrace, by far the greater portion 

 of the ground was devoted to a stony extravagance of design, and 

 nearly in the centre w^ere placed the vast and ugly fountain basins. 

 The contrivances to enable the water to go downstairs, the temples,, 

 statues, dead walls, all that costly rubbish, were praised by the papers 

 as the marvellous work of a genius. When a private individual 

 indulges in such fancies, he may not injure any but himself ; but 

 in this public garden — as an example of all that is admirable — we 

 have, in addition to wasteful outlay, what is hurtful to the public taste. 



Many whose lawns were, or might readily have been made, the 

 most beautiful of gardens have spoiled them for sham terraced 

 gardens, and there is a modern castle in Scotland where the embank- 

 ments are piled one above another, till the whole looks as if Uncle 

 Toby with an army of Corporal Trims had been carrying out his 

 grandest scheme in fortification. The rude stone wall of the hill 

 husbandman, supporting a narrow slip of soil for olive-trees or vines^ 

 became in the garden of the wealthy Roman a well-built one; but 

 it must be remembered that, even where the wall is necessary, the 

 beauty of the true Italian garden depends on the life of trees and 

 flowers more than on the plan of the garden, as in the Giusti garden 

 at Verona, whereas in our sham examples of the Italian garden all 

 is flat and lifeless. 



Terraced Gardens, allowing of much building (apart from 

 the house), have been in favour with architects who have designed 

 gardens. The landscape gardener, too often led by custom, falls in 

 with the notion that every house, no matter what its position, should 

 be fortified by terraces, and he busies himself in forming them even 

 on level ground, and large sums are spent on fountains, vases, statues, 

 balustrades, useless walls, and stucco work out of place. By the 

 use of such materials many a noble lawn is cut up ; and often the 

 " architectural " gardening is pushed so far into the park as to curtail 

 and injure the view. 



The best effect is to be got not by carrying architectural features 

 into 'the usually level town garden, but by the contrast between 

 the garden vegetation and its built surroundings — not the sham 



