ON THE THEORY OF A GARDEN. 



Nature, but Nature "to advantage dressed," Nature 

 in a rich disguise, Nature delicately humoured, 

 stamped with new qualities, furnished with a new 

 momentum, led to new conclusions, by man's skill in 

 selection and artistic concentration. True, that the 

 contents of the place have their originals somewhere 

 in the wild in forest or coppice, or meadow, or 

 hedgerow, swamp, jungle, Alp, or plain hill- side. 

 We can run each thing to earth any day, only that a 

 change has passed over them ; what in its original 

 state was complex or general, is here made a chosen 

 particular ; what was monotonous out there, is here 

 mixed and contrasted ; what was rank and ragged 

 there, is here taught to be staid and fine ; what had 

 a fugitive beauty there, has here its beauty prolonged, 

 and is combined with other items, made " of imagi- 

 nation all compact." Man has taken the several 

 things and transformed them ; and in the process 

 they passed, as it were, through the crucible of his 

 mind to reappear in daintier guise ; in the process, 

 the face of Nature became, so to speak, humanised : 

 man's artistry conveyed an added charm. 



Judged thus, a garden is, at one and the same 

 time, the response which Nature makes to man's 

 overtures, and man's answer to the standing challenge 

 of open-air beauty everywhere. Here they work no 

 longer in a spirit of rivalry, but for the attainment of 

 a common end. We cannot dissociate them in the 

 garden. A garden is man's transcript of the wood- 

 land world : it is common vegetation ennobled : 

 outdoor scenery neatly writ in man's small hand. 



