GARDENS AND GARDEN DESIGNERS 7 



by slow gradations, the most formal design was merged 

 without incongruity into the wild and uncultivated 

 landscape which bordered the property. Repton also 

 made a number of sketches in connection with his work, 

 tending to show how the general appearance of his 

 garden would change from time to time, as the trees 

 grew and the idea of newness disappeared. Though we 

 cannot agree with many of the rules laid down by him 

 for the benefit of future workers, there is much to 

 admire in his methods of garden planning and arrange- 

 ment. If he cannot be considered as the inventor of any 

 marked and novel departure (the " gardenesque " style 

 excepted), at any rate he did nothing to spoil existing 

 gardens by the introduction of foolish innovations, which 

 was the fault of many who went before him. Where 

 his ideas on garden planning must be considered as at 

 total variance with our own was in the banishing of 

 many necessary conveniences, simply because they did 

 not happen to be ornamental or harmonise exactly with 

 the landscape. A garden is a place of pleasure and 

 recreation, and there can be no possible harm in erecting 

 comfortable summer houses, seats and resting places, 

 from which to view its beauties, even though these are 

 not to be found in natural scenery of the ideal type. 



But the examination in detail of the idiosyncrasies of 

 each and every garden designer would be, to say the 

 least of it, a proceeding which could do no good, and 

 might be productive of much harm. The novice, seeking 

 for assistance and advice, will be needlessly confused by 

 any lengthened reference to the various "styles" laid 

 down as correct by individuals of widely differing tastes 

 and ideas. After all, when we have laboriously studied 

 the art of garden making in this and other countries as it 

 existed over a number of years, and have nodded ap- 

 proval at the work of a certain exponent, only to find 

 later that our ideas are more in accord with those of his 



