STYLE 



33 



even within the restrictions of conventional lines, from those 

 accomplished by other races if we go quietly along and permit 

 ourselves to develop. Let us not refuse to be guided by the 

 fundamental laws which govern proportion and design; but, 

 within these laws, let us create something beautiful ourselves. 



The first of these fundamental laws or principles assures us 

 that a formal, architectural, or conventional garden must con- 

 tinue along one of the principal axes of the house. If it cannot 

 do this no attempt should be made to have such a garden. And 

 any formal design, of even the most limited extent, must be car- 

 ried out on the axis of some feature of the house, such as an 

 entrance, a porch, a large window, or some important detail. 



This latter rule unerringly picks out the prominent architec- 

 tural lines which may be carried on beyond the wood or stone 

 of the building, although the building itself is absolutely irreg- 

 ular; and it supplies the necessary motif for planting even the 

 tiniest dooryard which, by the way, ought always to be planted 

 upon such a motif. 



The smaller the garden area the more strict should be the I 

 adherence to conventional lines, though they need not approach I 

 the limits of a 50 x 100 foot suburban plot, by any means. 

 Rarely, indeed, does the average suburban house lend itself to 

 any very extensive formal scheme, for it itself is seldom laid out 

 upon the regular lines of more pretentious dwellings. Some 

 detail must therefore be chosen to work from and usually this 

 will be the entrance, it being naturally the most prominent. 

 With this well worked up and well blended into the general 

 scheme, conventionality may stop right here, and broader lines 

 may be followed in the rest of the work. 



Planning, however, is not all that there is to a formal garden. 

 The lines laid down must be carried out with material suited to 



