ON THE THEORY OF A GARDEN. 



Nature, but Nature "to advantage dressed," Nature 

 in a rich disguise, Nature delicately humoured, 

 stamped with new qualities, furnished with a new 

 momentum, led to new conclusions, by man's skill in 

 selection and artistic concentration. True, that the 

 contents of the place have their originals somewhere 

 in the wild — in forest or coppice, or meadow, or 

 hedgerow, swamp, jungle, Alp, or plain hill side. 

 We can run each thing to earth any da)', only that a 

 change has passed over them ; what in its original 

 state was complex or general, is here made a chosen 

 particular ; what was monotonous out there, is here 

 mixed and contrasted ; what was rank and ragged 

 there, is here tauofht to be staid and fine ; what had 

 a fugitive beauty there, has here its beauty prolonged, 

 and is combined with other items, made " of imagi- 

 nation all compact." Man has taken the several 

 things and transformed them ; and in the process 

 they passed, as it were, through the crucible of his 

 mind to reappear in daintier guise ; in the process, 

 the face of Nature became, so to speak, humanised : 

 man's artistry conveyed an added charm. 



Judged thus, a garden is, at one and the same 

 time, the response which Nature makes to man's 

 overtures, and man's answer to the standing challenge 

 of open-air beauty everywhere. Here they work no 

 longer in a spirit of rivalry, but for the attainment of 

 a common end. We cannot dissociate them in the 

 garden. A garden is man's transcript of the wood- 

 land world : it is common vesfetation ennobled : 

 outdoor scenery neatly writ in man's small hand. 



