THE TECHNICS OF GARDENING. 179 



A garden is, first and last, a i)lacc for flowers ; 

 but, treading- in the old master's footsteps, I would 

 devote a certain part of even a small garden to 

 Nature's own wild self, and the loveliness of weed- 

 life. Here Art should only give things a good 

 start and help the propagation of some sorts of 

 plants not indigenous to the locality. Good effects 

 do not ensue all at once, but stand aside and wait, 

 or help judiciously, and the result will be a picture 

 of rude and vigorous life, of pretty colour and 

 glorious form, that is gratifying for its own qualities, 

 and more for its opposition to the peacefulness of 

 the garden's ordered surroundings. 



A garden is the place for flowers, a place where 

 one may foster a passion for loveliness, may learn 

 the magic of colour and the glory of form, and 

 quicken sympathy with Nature in her higher moods. 

 And, because the old-fashioned garden more con- 

 duces to these ends than the modern, it has our 

 preference. The spirit of old garden-craft, says : 

 *' Do everything that can be done to help Nature, to 

 lift things to perfection, to interpret, to give to your 

 Art method and distinctness." The spirit of the 

 modern garden-craft of the purely landscape school 

 says : " Let be, let well alone, or extemporise at 

 most. Brag of )-our scorn for Art, yet smuggle her 

 in, as a stalking-horse for your halting method and 

 non-ofeometrical forms." 



And, as we have shown, Art has her revenges as 

 well as Nature ; and the very negativeness of this 

 school's Art-treatments is the seal to its doom. 



M 2 



