16 THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. 



The very statement that there is but one way of making a garden, 



is its own refutation ; as with this formula before us what becomes 



of the wondrous variety of the earth and its forms, 



Variety the true and of the advantages and needs of change that 



source of beauty soil, site, climate, air, and view give us plains, 



in gardens. river va n eyS) \^ beach levels, mountains and 



gentle hills, chalk downs and rich loamy fields, 



forest and open country? 



What is the use of Essex going into Dorset merely to see the 

 same thing done in the home landscape or the garden ? But if 

 Essex were to study his own ground and do the best he could from 

 his own knowledge of the spot, his neighbour might be glad to see 

 his garden. We have too much of the stereotyped style already ; 

 in nine cases out of ten we can tell beforehand what we are going to 

 see in a country place in the way of conventional garden design and 

 planting ; and clearly that is not art in any right sense of the word 

 and never can be. 



As we go about our country the most depressing sign for all 

 garden lovers (and this often in districts of great natural beauty) is 

 the stereotyped gardens, probably made by the " young man in the 

 drawing-office." There is a harmful belief in the virtue of paper 

 plans which is misleading and only suits the wants of professionalism 

 in its worst form, and prevents the study of the ground itself, which 

 is the only right way to get the best result. 



To the good gardener all kinds of design are good if not against 



the site, soil, climate, or labours of his garden a very important 



point the last. We frequently see beds a foot in 



Any way good diameter and many other frivolities of paper plans 



that best suits which prevent the labours of a garden being done 



the site. w jth economy or simplicity. In many places- 



where these tracery gardens are carried out, they 



are soon seen to be so absurd that the owners quietly turf the 



spot over, and hence we see only grass where there ought to 



be a real flower garden. The good gardener is happy adorning 



old walls or necessary terraces, as at Haddon, as he knows walls 



are good friends in every way both as backgrounds and shelters; 



but he is as happy in a lawn garden, in a rich valley soil, or on the 



banks of a river, or on those gentle hill-slopes that ask for no terraces, 



or in the hundreds of gardens in and near towns and cities of Europe 



that are enclosed by walls and where there is no room for landscape 



effect (many of them distinctly beautiful too, as in Mr Fox's garden 



at Falmouth) ; as much at home in a border-castle garden as in the 



lovely Penjerrick, like a glimpse of a valley in some Pacific isle, or 



Mount Usher, cooled by mountain streams. 



