S6 GARDEN-CRAFT. 



in George Meredith's remark that " dulness is always 

 an irresistible temptation for brilliance." That the 

 Dutchman should be thus able to compete with 

 unfriendly Nature, and to reverse the brazen of the 

 unkind land of his birth, is an achievement that 

 reflects most creditably upon the artistic capacities 

 of his nation. 



But England — 



"This other Eden, demi-paradise " — 



suggests a garden of a less-constrained order than 

 either of these. Not that the Enorlish q-arden is 

 uniformly of the same type, at the same periods. 

 The variety of the type is to be accounted for in two 

 ways : firsdy, by the ingrained eclecticism of the 

 British mind ; secondl}', by the changeful character 

 of the country — this district is flat and open, this is 

 hilly — so that mere conformity to the lie of the land 

 would produce gardens which belong now to the 

 French type, now to the Italian. It is the same 

 with British Art of all kinds, of all times : in days 

 long before the Norman visitation and ever since, 

 the English Designer has leant more or less upon 

 foreign initiative, which goes to prove either how 

 inert is his own gift of origination, or how devious 

 may be the tastes of a mixed race. 



But if the English garden cannot boast of 

 singular points of interest, if its art reflects foreign 

 countries, it bears the mark of the English taste for 

 landscape, which gives it distinction and is sugges- 

 tive of very charming effects. The transcendent 



