

DESIGN IN PLANTING. 303 



replant. It is the nature of trees on mountain or steppe to grow to- 

 gether and protect each other, and in our wind-swept isles it is often 

 important to plant in the teeth of the worst wind, and close planting 

 should be the rule. 



The planting without thought of evergreens is a common evil in 



British gardens. Evergreens are often planted where people do not 



see what they may become after years of growth. 



Rampant Important views are shut out by coarse ever- 



evergreens. greens, and even the house itself may be hidden 



by their growth. 



In France it has been a practice to mar any grace of public 

 squares and gardens by a display of the efforts of the sculptor ; but 

 the French begin to see this mistake, and to cry out against it. It is 

 now proposed to remove these statues into one great statue cemetery, 

 where those who admire them might worship. 



Close to Hyde Park Corner there is a sort of fountain out of 

 place, which spoils a little lawn. Large memorial confectionery groups 

 ought not to be allowed to break up the spaces in 

 Things destructive the parks. Lately, I am told, the fantastic idea of 

 of repose. a playwright has been embodied in stone in Ken- 

 sington Gardens. If each succeeding decade is to 

 see outrages of that sort committed, what will eventually become of 

 the repose and quiet grace of parks ? 



An effective way of destroying repose in a public garden is the 

 caging of animals there. This leads to ugly shanties and pathways 

 for cleaning, feeding, and various purposes that need not be named. 



In the garden itself certain malformed trees are used by designers 

 of architectural turn to give points the Irish Yew, close-growing 

 Juniper, and various hideous " sports " of the Western Arbor- Vitae. 

 These are often used from the fatuous idea that they are old and 

 right in the old English garden the fact being that they are all 

 modern deformities. 



It should be borne in mind that the garden is but a patch in many 



a country place. It is only when we leave it we begin to see the real 



opportunity for landscape pictures in field, park, 



Landscape design or woodland. There never was so much teaching 



an art. of art in academic schools in every big town or city 



and professors and books in abundance, and yet 



there never was so much bad art. This is the common opinion of 



good judges in Paris and London. In Lord Redesdale's book there 



is a passage which has a bearing on this : 



" I remember how once, when a lady consulted Lord 

 Leighton about her boy, who showed a great talent for painting, 

 his answer was : ' Let him have the education of a gentleman 



