GARDEN-CRAFT. 



contour of the landscape was not of much account ; or 

 rather, it was thought the better if it had no natural 

 contour at all, but presented a flat plain or plateau 

 with no excrescences to interfere with the designer's 

 schemes. 



So much, then, for the pastoral simplicity of 

 Nature edited by the " landscape-gardener." And 

 let us note that under the auspices of the new 7^dgimi\ 

 not only is Nature to be changed, but changed more 

 than was ever dreamt of before ; the transformation 

 shall at once be more determined in its character and 

 more deceptive than had previously been attempted. 

 We were to have an artistically natural world, not a 

 naturally artistic one ; the face of the landscape was 

 to be purged of its modern look and made to look 

 primaeval. And in this doing, or undoing, of things, 

 the only art that was to be admitted was the art of 

 consummate deceit, which shall " satisfy the mind 

 as well as the eye." Yet call the man pope or 

 presbyter, and beneath his clothes he is the same 

 man ! There is not a pin to choose as regards 

 artificiality in the aims of the two schools, only in 

 the results. The naked or undressed garden has 

 studied irregularity, while the dressed garden has 

 studied regularity and style. The first has, perhaps, 

 an excessive regard for expression, the other has an 

 emphatic scorn for expression. One garden has its 

 plotted levels, its avenues, its vistas, its sweeping 

 lawns, its terraces, its balustrades, colonnades, 

 geometrical beds, gilded temples, and sometimes its 

 fountains that won't play, and its fine vases full of 



