vi PREFACE. 



gardener's ''open letter^' to take loose pages as fancies 

 occurred. So have these errant thoughts, jotted down in the 

 broken leisure of a busy life, grown solid unawares and 

 expanded into a would-be-serious contribution to garden- 

 literature. 



Following upon the original lines of the Essay on the 

 For and Against of Modern Gardening, I became the 

 more confirmed as to the general rightness of the old ways 

 of applying Art, and of interpreting Nature the more I 

 studied old gardens and the point of view of their makers ; 

 until I now appear as advocate of old types of design, which, 

 I am persuaded, are more consonant with the traditions of 

 English life, and more suitable to an Eiiglish homestead 

 than some now in vogue. 



The old-fashioned garden, whatever its failings in the 

 eyes of the modern landscape-gardener {great is the poverty 

 of his invention), represents one of the pleasures of Englatid, 

 one of the charms of that quiet beautifid life of bygofie 

 times that I, for one, zvould fain see revived. And judged 

 even as pieces of handicraft, apart from their poetic ititercst, 

 these gardens are worthy of careful study. They embody 

 ideas of ancient zvorth ; they evidence fine aims and heroic 

 efforts; they exemplify traditio7ts that are the net result 

 of a long probation. Better still, they render into tangible 

 shapes old moods of mind that English landscape has 

 inspired; they testify to old devotion to the sccjiery of our 

 native land, and illustrate old attempts to idealise its pleasant 

 traits. r 



