GARDEN DESIGN AND RECENT WRITINGS UPON IT. 19 



teaching that to form a garden one had better know nothing of 

 the things that should grow in it, from the Cedar of Lebanon to 

 the violets of the mountain rocks. 



This teaching is as false as any spoken or written thing can 

 be ; there is an absolute difference between the living gardens and 

 conventional designs dealing with dead matter, be it brick or stone, 

 glass, iron, or carpets. There is a difference in kind, and while 

 any pupil in an architect's office will get out a drawing for the 

 kind of garden we may see everywhere, the garden beautiful does 

 not arise in that way. I would much rather trust the first simple 

 person, who knew his ground and loved his work, to get a beautiful 

 result than any of those artificers. We have proof in the gardens 

 of English people abroad that were freed from the too facile plans 

 of the "office"; far more beautiful gardens arise, as in the Isle of 

 Madeira, where every garden differs from its neighbour, and all are 

 beautiful. So it is in a less degree in our own island, where the 

 more we get out of the range of any one conventional idea for 

 the garden the more beauty and happy incident we see. 



