A LILY TANK 151 



a good deal of the knowledge that only comes of 

 many forms of study and labour and effort. But 

 the grand plants are now so numerous and so easily 

 accessible that one should consider all ways of using 

 them worthily. 



As far as I understand the needs of such a garden 

 as I have sketched, with a nucleus or backbone 

 of pure formality, how grandly one could use all 

 the best plants. How, descending the slope, at 

 every fresh landing some new form of plant beauty 

 would be displayed ; how, coming up from below, the 

 ascent of, say, a hundred feet, instead of being a toil, 

 would be a progress of pleasure by the help of the 

 smooth flagged path and the wide flights of easy 

 steps. Every step in the garden would be nearly two 

 feet broad and never more than five inches high, no 

 matter how steep the incline. If ground falls so 

 rapidly that steps of such a gradient cannot be 

 carried straight up and down, we build out a bold 

 landing and carry the steps in a double flight right 

 and left, and then land again, and come down to 

 the next level with another flight. Then we find 

 what a good wide space is left below for a basin 

 and a splash of water or some handsome group of 

 plants, or both, and that the whole scheme has gained 

 by the alteration in treatment that the form of the 

 ground made expedient. Then there are frequent 

 seats, so placed as best to give rest to the pilgrim 

 and to display the garden-picture. 



Where the lower flights of steps occur we are 

 passing through woodland, with a not very wide 



