THE AMATEUR GARDEN 



nor steal, it may have its concealments ; they are 

 as right as they are valuable. One of the first 

 steps in the making of a garden should be to de- 

 termine what to hide and how most gracefully 

 to hide it. A garden is a house's garments, its 

 fig-leaves, as we may say, and the garden's con- 

 cealments, like its revelations, ought always to 

 be in the interest of comfort, dignity, and charm. 



We once had a very bumptious member on our 

 board of judges. "My dear madam!" he ex- 

 claimed to an aspirant for the prizes, the under- 

 pinning of whose dwelling stood out unconcealed 

 by any sprig of floral growth, "your house is 

 barefooted ! Nobody wants to see your house's 

 underpinning, any more than he wants to see 

 your own !" 



It is not good to be so brusque about non- 

 penitentiary offences, but skilful and lovely con- 

 cealments in gardening were his hobby. To an- 

 other he whispered, "My dear sir, tell your 

 pretty house her petticoat shows!" and to yet 

 another, "Take all those shrubs out of the mid- 

 dle of your lawn and 'plant out' with them every 

 feature of your house which would be of no in- 



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