GARDENS AND GARDEN DESIGNERS 3 



mere haphazard treatment of a piece of enclosed ground. 

 Its votaries have many of them been men who knew 

 absolutely nothing of the ways of flowers, to whom the 

 wonders of nature were as a sealed book. That they 

 were clever draughtsmen none will deny, and that 

 many beautiful gardens were made on paper is equally 

 to be admitted. But that was all, they were unable to 

 see how their gardens would look after being planted 

 a few years probably they did not care, at any rate 

 they were miserable failures, as must ever be the case 

 when a well drawn design is considered sufficient proof 

 of supreme ability. This class of garden maker is by 

 no means extinct to-day, and with paper, drawing 

 appliances, and a few books of plans for guidance, is 

 able to turn out sketches which, to the uninitiated, seem 

 to suggest unlimited acquaintance with the subject. 

 But transfer these designs to the ground, lay out the 

 paths and beds as he suggests, plant trees and raise 

 mounds, dig watercourses and build rockeries to 

 satisfy his caprice, and what do we find ? Our garden 

 is a wretched affair, a thoughtless jumble of half- 

 matured ideas, a desecration of common-sense and good 

 taste. Trees are planted where their graceful outline is 

 cramped and hidden, flowering plants have no possible 

 chance of displaying their full beauty before us, and 

 everywhere we look there are signs of ignorance and 

 wasted opportunity. There is something so contra- 

 dictory in the term "garden architect"; it suggest 

 the union of two totally distinct professions. Bricks 

 and mortar, cut stone-work and terracing, are now 

 pushed into the garden, with the result that its real 

 object is lost and its beauties crowded out. The 

 architect is greedy ; not content with designing the 

 house and its approaches, its stabling and many ac- 

 cessories, he must needs take the garden in hand also, 

 and we find his work everywhere and weary of its 



