THE GARDEN 



•39 



for being definitely reminiscent of one prototype throughout. Some- 

 times, exceptionally, this matter of association can be carried further. 

 We might have a Shakespeare garden : a garden which contained as 

 far as possible all those, and only those, flowers which are mentioned 

 in Shakespeare. That would be carrying association rather far, be- 

 cause, of course, Shakespeare's botany, like Shakespeare's geography, 

 was largely a matter of his immediate artistic need. 



If the garden is visually related to the house, — as it often is, and Choice of 

 usually should be when it is formally designed, — the style of the house ^^ 

 will influence the style of the architecture or sculpture appearing in the 

 garden, and, to a very considerable extent, fix the kind of organization 

 of the whole scheme which will be possible under those circumstances. 

 If no dominant object of already determined style thus fixes the style 

 of the garden, and if the associational value of some historic style is de- 

 sired, that style would normally be chosen for the garden which best ex- 

 presses the mode of organization arising from the local circumstances 

 and the general esthetic effect that the designer seeks. These same 

 considerations we discuss later in reference to the estate. 



If the garden is to be recognized as being physically one unit, it is Composition of 

 evident that enough of its boundary must be perceived from within ^^^ Garden 

 to define its main shape. It cannot have features in the middle of 

 it so large that the part of the garden behind these middle features is 

 secluded and thrown out of the composition. And so it comes about 

 that by far the commonest type of small garden is an arrangement which 

 is open in the middle — with some not too large central feature, per- 

 haps — and with its elements of greatest height near its outer bound- 

 ary. Such a garden is a sort of outdoor room, decorated on the walls 

 and on the floor, and appropriately furnished with objects inter- 

 esting in themselves and related to the main scheme of the design. 

 We can consider the inclosure : the bounding wall or hedge, its height Its Compo- 

 and its form which give the main form to the garden, its composition ■^'''"*<'' 

 and minor points of interest and their relations to the other elements 

 of the scheme. We can consider the floor and its composition and 

 decoration : the paths, the beds, the pools, and the various ways of sub- 

 dividing the garden floor into pleasant proportions and interesting 

 patterns. And again, we can consider the various individual objects 



