A Modest Home and its Lovely Surroundings 



<4/->TONE WALLS," sings seven- 

 ^S teenth century Lovelace, "do not 

 ^"^ a prison make;" nor do four 

 stone or brick or wood walls make a 

 home. Apart from the inner conditions 

 constituting a home, the surroundings 

 are an important element in making a 

 house a home. The grandest building, 

 without apt environment, is like a 



drawing room. Nature shows infinite 

 variety with exquisite beauty of effect in 

 her placing of plants, flowers or trees. 

 Therefore, if we would succeed in mak- 

 ing an effective floral or arboreal setting 

 for a residence, on the natural plan, we 

 must study to follow nature's way. 



One of the two or three main essen- 

 tials in a garden or grounds of this kind 



Front LawD, Cattlewraye, Resideace •( Mr. F. R. Yoktmt, Peterboro, Ont. 



diamond without its setting, which, fit- 

 tingly joined, Benvenuto Cellini, regard- 

 ed as converting a mere precious stone 

 into a jewel, giving it its full beauty 

 value. Surrounding a house with trees, 

 and planted and tended grounds, as far 

 as the external element goes, makes it a 

 home in a real, and, in proportion to 

 the skill and taste employed, beautiful 

 sense. 



The home-making environment of a 

 house may vary, according to condi- 

 tions and facilities from a tiny lawn, 

 the size of a dining table, to a sweeping 

 expanse of grounds, each effective or 

 otherwise, according to treatment. 



For a small or medium sized area the 

 formal or Italian system of gardening — 

 using the word in its widest meaning — 

 is the better adaptable. The more pic- 



Ituresque and homely way of natural gar- 

 dening is more, if not exigently adapt- 

 flble to larger grounds. The natural 

 'vr&y is to follow, and at the same time 

 direct and, improve upon nature's way, 

 by adapting it to conditions and desired 

 results. Nature, in planting her trees 

 and shrubs, never places them symmet- 

 rically ; she never shows the bad taste 

 of "matching" a shrub or flower with 

 one of the same kind. If the good Lord 

 were planting rose bushes, He wouldn't 

 place one on each side of a house en- 

 trance, as stiff and formal as two grena- 

 diers on gaurd at the door of a royal 



is trees, and space permitting, the bigger 

 and the most fittingly placed the bet- 

 ter. Trees are the first condition of a 

 house setting. They give dignity and 

 a sense of repose, with their "calm 

 shade that brings a kindred calm." Mrs. 

 Hemans' "stately homes of England" 

 owe their charm to "the tall, ancestral 

 trees" that make it a "pleasant land." 

 Trees should surround the house and 



grounds like guardian sentinels and not 

 too near it — to shut out the vital sun- 

 light — and trimmed high so that sun- 

 light and air have free play consistent 

 with shade and shelter at some time of 

 the day, and with the growth of grass 

 and other things. 



Another essential condition of nature's 

 garden-making plan is a lawn of good 

 turf, not necessarily mathematically 

 level, like a bowling green, but smooth 

 and, at all times, neatly groomed — as in 

 nature, a companion idea to rus in urbe ; 

 the fairest beauty of face would be spoil- 

 ed if the face were not kept clean. 



In ;he natural scheme of doing things 

 a lawn is not a mere uniform stretch of 

 sward, but a place for planting trees and 

 shrubs and flowers, corresponding to the 

 trees or clump-- of trees and shrubs of 

 varied sizes and groupings that make 

 the diversity and beauty of a landscape, 

 which without them would be a "flat, 

 stale and unprofitable" stretch of irk- 

 some verdure. 



The beauty and homely effect of the 

 placing singly or in groups of shrubs 

 and flower plots, depend upon fidelity to 

 nature's way of doing these things. Done 

 in this way; the arrangement of turf, 

 trees, shrubs ,and flowers — if studied ab- 

 sence of system and symmetry can be 

 called arrangement — will have a strik- 

 ingly beautiful and artistically natural 

 result. 



Given the house and suitable ground, 

 and a few fortunately planted old trees, 

 surprising results can be got at trifling 

 cost in money — only a little, or rather, a 

 great deal, of loving care and exercise 

 of common sense, or what is rarer, cul- 

 tured sense of the beautiful. 



The pictures accompanying illustrate, 

 to a necessarily limited extent, the 



East Side View, C&atlawraye. Note the Sjrivan Effect 



