i. : 2\ :THE;EOPK OF GARDEN DESIGN 



making consists in the endeavour to duplicate a whole 

 landscape on a small scale this was an error into which 

 Brown's followers blindly fell but because so much 

 that is of value to us may be gathered from an intelligent 

 study of the means by which Nature achieves her most 

 beautiful effects. The disposition of wood and water in 

 a stretch of well-balanced scenery, the beautifully pro- 

 portioned effect of level and rising ground, of valleys 

 and hills ; all these afford an object lesson, which, at 

 some time or other, is bound to prove suggestive when 

 endeavouring to forecast results in artificially arranged 

 grounds. Nature, then, is the school where the novice 

 should go to be thoroughly taught the rudiments of his 

 art. Not only will he learn much that is not to be 

 found in books, but his love of the picturesque and 

 beautiful will be fostered and encouraged a necessary 

 proceeding if he is to achieve any measure of success as 

 a maker of gardens. 



To a certain extent the good designer is born not 

 made, but much may be done by intelligent study and a 

 real fondness for the work, to make up for any lack of 

 natural ability in this direction. But in order to plan a 

 really satisfactory garden, one qualification is absolutely 

 essential: before all things the designer must be himself 

 a gardener. That is, he must have spent some portion 

 of his life actually working among the flowers and trees, 

 whose suitable arrangement he afterwards proposes to 

 decide. He must have sown and planted with his own 

 hand, watched the growth of leaf and bud, and observed 

 the habit of each plant and its adaptability to certain 

 situations. Colour effects must also be noted, in short, 

 nothing should be allowed to escape his eye which 

 concerns the varied phases in the life of the simplest of 

 the garden trees and flowers. Here lies the secret of 

 half the failures which have occurred since garden 

 making came to be regarded as something more than 



