32 The American Flower Garden 



broad terraces and box-edged parterres that had been the glory 

 of the old English estates, influenced by the Renaissance. The 

 saying that nature abhors a straight line was construed to war 

 rant the destruction of every line of oaks and elms, every direct 

 road and path on English country places. People professed to 

 travel cheerfully, in the name of reform, twice the distance in 

 meaningless serpentine twists and turns to reach either their en 

 trance gate or the kitchen garden. The planting of trees and 

 shrubbery was supposed to be ridiculous if wild nature were not 

 copied literally. Hence the logical step was presently taken of 

 setting out an occasional dead tree in English parks. Devotees 

 of the so-called natural school went so far as to refuse to clip their 

 lawns those wonderful velvet lawns which are the very heart of 

 the English garden. Quite as many crimes were committed in 

 the name of nature by the unintelligent followers of Repton and 

 &quot;Capability&quot; Brown as had been done in the name of art by the 

 formal gardeners who had reached the baroque period of decadence 

 before Addison s day. 



For the novice who turns for inspiration to Robinson s &quot;The 

 English Flower Garden,&quot; one of the most delightfully infectious 

 books on gardening ever written, is to be taught that the formal 

 garden is most unlovely and absurd. Robinson is an enthusiastic 

 horticulturist who simply cannot see the architectural point of 

 view. On the other hand, let the novice take up Blomfield s 

 &quot;The Formal Garden,&quot; or Sedding s exquisitely written &quot;Garden 

 Craft,&quot; and he will get the notion that the naturalistic method of 

 making a garden or treating a landscape is unworthy to be 

 called an art at all. 



&quot;The question at issue is a very simple one,&quot; says Blomfield, 

 who is Robinson s special bete noire. &quot; Is the garden to be considered 



