TYPES OF GARDENS 



For, certainly, it is characteristic of the people in this country to 

 appreciate very definitely the fascination of natural beauty and to 

 enjoy wholesomely the charm of pretty scenery. As a nation we 

 worship nature sincerely and we take an honest pride in the way that 

 she has lavished upon the British Isles many of her choicest favours. 

 We respond too frankly to her generosity to be inclined to under- 

 estimate the value of what she gives us, or to wish to throw away 

 lightly the advantages which she has enabled us to possess. 

 It is from this association with nature that comes our love of gardens. 

 Our enjoyment of natural scenery implies admiration for nature in 

 her larger manifestations, an admiration so real that it induces in us 

 the desire to bring ourselves more closely into relation with her. 

 We want to be constantly reminded of her, to have her works about 

 us and to see her hand in our immediate surrroundings. Few of us, 

 unfortunately, have the chance to live in places where she works 

 always on a large scale ; most of us, indeed, have to be content to 

 make some small oasis in the desert which man creates and to invite 

 nature to do what she can to help us in turning this oasis into a 

 place of beauty. But even the small opportunity does not make us 

 any the less inclined towards the practice and encouragement of the 

 gardener's art ; if anything, it rouses us to greater efforts to overcome 

 the difficulties that circumstances put in our way. 

 The result of this persistent pursuit of an ideal, and of this incessant 

 struggle to maintain that intimacy with nature which in our crowded 

 civilisation seems to verge on the impossible, is that the garden has 

 become a very useful factor in modern existence. It is no longer the 

 toy of the man of wealth who can spend his thousands in surrounding 

 himself with lordly pleasure-grounds and who can give up great 

 spaces to the working out of wonderful schemes and elaborate designs. 

 It is, instead, the companion of men of all classes, of every one who 

 can secure even a few square yards of ground upon which plants will 

 grow and flowers bloom, and it brings into thousands of lives an 

 interest and a pleasure which must be counted among the best and 

 purest that humanity can reach. 



There are many dull corners in the meanest and ugliest of our towns 

 which are beautified to-day by little gardens which relieve delight- 

 fully the hopelessness of bare walls and contrast exquisitely in their 

 green freshness with the drab monotony of bricks and mortar. 

 There are many unpicturesque houses which are saved from well- 

 merited contempt by being set in the midst of cunningly contrived 

 examples of the garden-maker's art, and derive dignity and character 

 from the charm of their surroundings. There are many great cities 



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