CHAPTER II 



ART IN RELATION TO FLOWER GARDENING 

 AND GARDEN DESIGN 



THERE is no reason why we should not have true art 

 in the garden, and none why a garden should be ugly, 

 bare, or conventional. The word ' art ' being used in its 

 highest sense here, it may perhaps be well to justify 

 its use, and as good a definition of the word as any 

 perhaps is 'power to see and give form to beautiful 

 things ', which we see shown in some of its finest forms 

 in Greek sculpture and in the works of the great masters 

 of painting. 



But art is of many kinds, and owing to the confusion 

 caused in many minds by the loose ' critical ' talk of the 

 day, it is not easy for all to see that true art is based on 

 clear-eyed study and love of nature, rather than on the 

 invention and the ' personality ' of the artist of which we 

 hear so much. The work of the true artist is marked 

 by fidelity to nature, and proof of this may be seen in 

 any great art gallery. But people write much about art 

 in magazines and papers who are blind to its simple 

 law, and we may read essay after essay about it without 

 being brought a whit nearer to the simple truth. On 

 the other hand we get a false idea that it is not by 

 observing, but by inventing and supplementing, that 

 good work is done. The strong man must be there, 

 but his work is to see the whole beauty of the subject, 

 and to help us to see it. To distort it in any way for 



