viii THE ARGUMENT 



of the Italian Renaissance, although then as now it 

 was the last of the arts to succeed. As Bacon wisely 

 predicts, " Man shall ever see that when ages grow to 

 Civility and Elegancy: Men come to Build Stately 

 sooner than to Garden Finely: As if Gardening were 

 the Greater Perfection." 



Ornamental gardening for centuries in Japan has been 

 reduced (rather monotonously frorii our point of view) 

 to an almost exact science ; in a different form it was 

 practised as a fine art in classic Greece and Rome, was 

 revived throughout Europe at the time of the Renais- 

 sance, and still continues to be studied in France along 

 the same lines under the head of architecture. But in 

 England to-day it is not generally understood as more 

 than a craft. Theories have been advanced to raise its 

 standard, but in such a partisan spirit and from such a 

 one-sided standpoint that they have accomplished little. 

 Each Englishman who attempts to explain how a gar- 

 den should be planned and planted seems to have 

 agreed to differ from every other expert who has pre- 

 viously expounded his theory on the subject. If two 

 garden-designers think alike, the fact has hardly been 

 acknowledged, although it may be surmised that their 

 differences are more apparent than real. 



The result of this divergence of opinion is that scat- 

 tered over England are a great variety of gardens almost 

 impossible to classify. Some are planted as if upon 



