22 Hints on Landscape Gardening 



South Germany, or Silesia, then I am, on the 

 whole, of the opinion that projects of parks are 

 hors d'ceuvre. It would be like a little landscape 

 in the corner of a magnificent Claude Lorrain. 

 There one's work should be confined to the lay- 

 ing-out of good roads, that the enjoyment of 

 such rare scenery may be made easier, here and 

 there taking down some isolated trees in order 

 to open views which are hidden by Nature, 

 always indifferent to the display of her beauties. 

 Near the house, however, one should seek for 

 the charm of a garden of modest proportions, 

 which, whenever possible, would contrast with 

 Nature around. In such a garden one should 

 have in view, not so much the variety of a land- 

 scape, as comfort and charm, safety and elegance. 

 The garden art of the Romans, which, through 

 the study of the classical writers, and especially 

 through the description which Pliny gives of his 

 villa, again came into practice in the fifteenth 

 century in Italy, and which was later, in the so- 

 called French gardens, altered into colder, less 

 comfortable forms, deserves particular considera- 

 tion on this very point. This rich and sumptu- 

 ous art, which may be called an extension of the 

 art of architecture from the house to the garden, 

 — or, as the English might say, the approach of 

 the landscape to the very doors of the house, — 

 may be most suitably applied to this purpose. 

 Imagine, for instance, among the precipices and 

 waterfalls, the dark pine woods and blue glaciers 

 of mountainous Switzerland, a classical, antique 



