GARDENS AND GARDEN DESIGNERS 9 



business, if business it may be called, can be conducted 

 by post. Surely, they argue, the professional, if he 

 knows anything at all, will have no difficulty in advising 

 without the trouble and expense of a visit. Given the 

 dimensions of a plot of ground, what can be easier than 

 to make a plan on paper showing the positions to be 

 occupied by lawns, shrubberies, flower beds and walks ? 

 Alas, this is how hundreds of gardens are made, and the 

 same wretched designs are dumped about the country 

 like so many copies of a popular picture. A quotation 

 from the writings of Batty Langley will show that the 

 man who relies on plans is depending for guidance on a sadly 

 broken reed. He says: "Now, as the Beauty of Gar- 

 dens in general depends upon an elegant Disposition of all 

 their Parts, which cannot be determined without a perfect 

 Knowledge of its several Ascendings, Descendings, Views, 

 etc., how is it possible that any Person can make a good 

 Design for any Garden whose Situation they never saw ? 

 To draw a beautiful, regular Draught is not to the 

 Purpose : for altho' it makes a handsome Figure on the 

 paper, yet it has quite a different Effect when executed 

 on the ground." Individuals must necessarily have their 

 peculiarities, and it is right they should : we recognise 

 the same qualities, perhaps some trick of light and shade, 

 in a score of totally different subjects painted by a great 

 artist. But there is no excuse for the designer who, having 

 laid out one garden to his satisfaction, immediately pro- 

 ceeds to imitate his previous effort in a dozen different 

 places. Because a terrace happens to look well in a 

 hillside garden, there is no reason for supposing that its 

 inclusion is desirable in one situated on the level. Yet 

 how many tons of earth have been carted from one place 

 to another, so that stupid embankments might be raised, 

 and afterwards fortified with terraces all this in places 

 where there was not a hill for miles. Love of imitation 

 has been the downfall of many an otherwise good 



