TYPES OF GARDENS 



acquires an added dignity and gains in artistic significance. The 

 garden becomes then, as it were, a part of the house, an architectural 

 adjunct which is necessary to explain the builder's intention ; at 

 the same time a frame and a background to a serious work of art. 

 It serves, too, a very valuable purpose by separating the house 

 itself properly from the informal landscape which lies beyond the 

 boundaries of the grounds. The transition from the structural 

 features of the building through the not less carefully constructed 

 but more varied features of the garden to the untamed woods or 

 park-lands outside is made with a certain ease and grace that satisfy 

 the eye and with a natural sequence that seems logically correct. 

 It is not only the palatial house, however, that needs to be surrounded 

 by a formal garden. At the other end of the scale can be instanced 

 the modest suburban villa which stands in the little patch of ground 

 assigned to it by the speculators who laid out the eligible building 

 estate where it is herded together with many other houses of the 

 same character. To attempt a landscape garden in this little patch 

 would be a pitiful absurdity ; the result would be pathetic rather 

 than pleasing. But if the limitations of space are frankly accepted, 

 if the nearness of the boundary walls is taken as an immutable fact 

 which cannot be disguised, there is still scope enough for the designer 

 who knows how to make the best of an apparently unpromising 

 opportunity. He can be as formal as he pleases without getting 

 out of relation to his surroundings ; he can lay down paved walks 

 and set up miniature pergolas or quaint trellised nooks, he may 

 venture on a small fountain basin and distribute tidily little, 

 definitely shaped flower beds, he may even introduce here and there 

 a few simple pieces of topiary work, and his garden will look as if 

 it belonged to the place and will have a due measure of that fitness 

 which is the foundation of all good art. 



Indeed, many a forecourt or backyard, in which generally a few 

 stunted shrubs are allowed to linger miserably, or a few half-faded 

 flowers to droop through an untidy existence, could be made into 

 tiny formal gardens which would be quite legitimately a joy to the 

 people who possessed them, and the designer who had grasped the 

 necessity for dealing discreetly with such small spaces could exercise 

 many ingenuities of planning which would be agreeably effective 

 Of course, he would have to cultivate simplicity of style and to 

 abandon the ambitions which spur him to sumptuousness of manner 

 in places where he has his larger opportunities he could not put a 

 pretentious terrace in a city back garden or even in a suburban half- 

 acre. But he could fill this space very pleasantly with suitable 

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