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ENGLISH PLEASURE GARDENS 



opinion. 



The theory 

 of modern 

 garden 

 architects. 



to decry the natural or English style, which had devel- 

 oped into scores of unmeaning flower-beds disfiguring 

 the lawn in the shapes of kidneys, tadpoles, sausages, 

 leeches, and commas. James says: " If I am to have a 

 system at all, give me the good old system of terraces 

 and angled walks and clipt yew edges, against whose 

 dark and rich verdure the bright old-fashioned flowers 

 glittered in the sun. I love the topiary art with its open 

 avowal of its artificial character. It repudiates at the 

 first glance the skulking and cowardly 'celare artem ' 

 principle, and in its vegetable sculpture is the properest 

 transition from the architecture of the house to the 

 natural beauties of the grove and paddock." 



William Morris also championed the formal garden 

 and declared that it should be contained in a definite 

 enclosure. " Large and small, the garden should look 

 both orderly and rich. It should be fenced from the 

 outer world. It should by no means imitate the wilful- 

 ness or wildness of nature, but should look like a thing 

 never seen except near a house." 



Several modern garden architects notably Messrs. 

 John Sedding, T. W. Mawson, R. Blomfield, and 

 F. Inigo Thomas have published their ideas as to 

 how a garden can be brought to perfection, and have 

 also put their theories into practice. According to a 

 consensus of opinion the essentials of their system are 

 balance if not symmetry of design ; an outer enclosure 



