140 THE PLAN OF THE PLACE 



should be large, free and generous, but the more 

 they are cut up and worried with trivial effects 

 the smaller and meaner they look. 



But if we consider these lawn flower-beds 

 wholly apart from their surroundings, we must 



^f!> 





132. Worth paying admittance to see! 



admit that they are at best unsatisfactory. It 

 generally amounts to this, that w^e have four 

 months of sparse and downcast vegetation, one 

 month of limp and frost-bitten plants, and seven 

 months of bare earth or mud. I am not now 

 opposing the carpet -beds which professional gar- 

 deners make in parks and other museums. I like 

 museums, and some of the carpet beds and set 

 pieces are "fearfully and wonderfully made" (see 



