io THE BOOK OF GARDEN DESIGN 



designer, whose enthusiasm for the work of others has 

 completely over-ruled his own common-sense. We are 

 not even meant to imitate Nature, the best of teachers, 

 but rather look to her for inspiration, adapting the lessons 

 learnt in meadow and woodland to the altered conditions 

 which highly cultivated ground imposes. 



Nothing to my mind can be less helpful to the garden 

 maker than the common practice which prevails of insti- 

 tuting competitions in the horticultural papers, with 

 prizes for the best garden design sent in. As an en- 

 couragement in the art of draughtsmanship, or a stimulus 

 to the beginner to use his ingenuity, this form of plan 

 drawing may prove decidedly beneficial. But to imagine 

 that the designs themselves are of the slightest practical 

 use is, in the majority of cases, absurd. An attractive 

 plan, mechanically adaptable to gardens of varying sizes, 

 is the greatest temptation which can be set in the path of 

 the unwary. It teaches men to grub about the earth 

 with measuring rod and chain, levelling, filling up 

 hollows, cutting down trees, so that no obstruction may 

 be offered to the carrying out of the design in its entirety. 

 Whereas all our thoughts should be for the natural ap- 

 pearance of the ground, its slopes and gradients, which 

 harmonise perfectly with the face of the surrounding 

 country. Existing features should in nearly all cases be 

 retained, or simply modified to our purpose. Imagine 

 the wantonness of cutting down a beautiful tree, because 

 our plan says that a path ought to run where it now 

 stands ; or what possible excuse can there be for ruining 

 a stretch of fine turf with beds cut in the form of circles, 

 lozenges and triangles. The moral of all this is plain. 

 Each garden must be treated, as regards its laying out, 

 simply and solely on its own merits and possibilities. It 

 matters not whether we are dealing with a humble quarter 

 acre attached to the modern villa, or have in hand the 

 broad surroundings of the country mansion. There is 



