vi PREFACE. 



gardener's "open letter? to take loose pages as fancies 

 occurred. So have these errant thoughts, jotted down in the 

 broken leisure of a busy life, grown solid unawares and 

 expanded into a would-be-serious contribution to garden- 

 literature. 



Following upon the original lines of the Essay on tJie 

 For and Against of Modern Gardening, I became the 

 more confirmed as to the general rightness of the old ways 

 of applying Art, and of interpreting Nature the more I 

 studied old gardens and the point of view of their makers ; 

 until I now appear as advocate of old types of design, which, 

 I am persuaded^ are more consonant with the traditions of 

 English life, and more suitable to an English homestead 

 than some now in vogue. 



The old-fashioned garden, whatever its failings in the 

 eyes of the modern landscape-gardener (great is the poverty 

 of his invention}, represents one of the pleasures of England, 

 one of th$ charms of that quiet beautiful life of bygone 

 times that I, for one, would fain see revived. And judged 

 even as pieces of handicraft, apart from their poetic interest, 

 these gardens are worthy of careful study. They embody 

 ideas of ancient worth ; they evidence fine aims and heroic 

 efforts ; they exemplify traditions that are the net result 

 of a long probation. Better still, they render into tangible 

 shapes old moods of mind that English landscape has 

 inspired; they testify to old devotion to the scenery of our 

 native land, and illustrate old attempts to idealise its pleasant 

 traits. 



