THE ARCHITECT IN THE GARDEN. 311 



spent in deforming trees are sad to think of and a waste to make the 

 earth hideous. We may see examples of it on all sides here, as well 

 as in the Royal gardens of the great cities of Europe. 



Part of the architect's effort was to use the garden as a dumping 



ground for statues, mostly of little merit. Statues of value as 



works of art should in our country be under cover. 



Statues in The fig ures f animals, too, are out of place in the 



gardens. garden. Redundant ornaments of any kind, such 



as vases, often spoil it. In a recent book on 



garden ornament I see a milestone figuring as an ornament in a 



garden in Ireland. The use of marble is objectionable for another 



reason. Sir A. Geikie, in a letter to The Times, nth June 1919, 



wrote : 



" On no account should white statuary marble be employed in 

 any structure in the open air. Even the purest air of the country 

 contains carbonic acid, which, dissolved in falling rain, acts on the 

 stone as a solvent. In our rainy climate only a few years suffice to 

 remove the polish from the surface, which gradually becomes rough 

 and granular, so that one can wipe off the crumbling powder with 

 the hand. In the air of large towns other acids, produced from the 

 burning of coal, are added to the atmosphere and increase the 

 solvent action of the rain." 



Excessive use of other stone is also a mistake, as we may see at 

 Drayton Manor, Witley Court, and many other British gardens, also 

 abroad, as at Potsdam, and in the Italian gardens, where statues of 

 inferior merit mar any good effect that one might look for in a true 

 garden. 



The terrace is in place only when it is a matter of necessity. To 



make holes in the earth is to spoil the ground and a wasteful error. 



I remember once in Ireland, near a beautiful bay, 



Terracing level seeing a huge formless mound of some thousands 



ground. O f tons of earth, and learnt that it was the earth 



that had been dug up to make .a terrace which 



was quite needless in the situation. Many a fine foreground has 



been spoiled by the terrace. If terracing is really needed, the 



stonework should certainly be left to the good architect. 



Water should reflect light and have some relation to natural 



conditions, as the lie of ground, but very often in gardens designed 



by architects it is seen in petty stone basins near 



The misuse of the house. One in Surrey is cut up by a little 



water. canal 18 inches wide. Trivial fountain basins are 



a mistake, and bring the mosquito. ' The recent 



addition to the garden flora of many noble hardy Water Lilies is 



some excuse for the water basin ; but for various good reasons 



