GARDEN-CRAFT 



CHAPTER I. 



ON THE THEORY OF A GARDEN. 



" Come hither, come hither, come hither ; 



Here shall he see 



No enemy 

 But winter and rough weather." 



SOME subjects require to be delineated according 

 to their own taste. Whatever the author's notions 

 about it at starting, the subject somehow slips out 

 of his grasp and dictates its own method of treat- 

 ment and style. The subject of gardening answers 

 to this description : you cannot treat it in a regula- 

 tion manner. It is a discursive subject that of itself 

 breeds laggard humours, inclines you to reverie, and 

 suggests a discursive style. 



This much in defence of my desultory essay. 

 The subject, in a manner, drafts itself. Like the 

 garden, it, too, has many aspects, many side-paths, 

 that open out broken vistas to detach one's interest 

 and lure from the straight, broad terrace- platform of 

 orderly discourse. At first sight, perhaps, with the 

 balanced beauty of the thing in front of you, care- 

 fully parcelled out and enclosed, as all proper 



