HISTORICAL AND COMPARATIVE. 97 



vulgarised and beggared by the banishment of the 

 old pleasaimces of the days of Elizabeth, or of the 

 Jameses and Charleses, and their wholesale demo- 

 lition there and then struck a blow at English 

 gardening from which it has not yet recovered. It 

 may be admitted that, in the case of an individual 

 garden here and there, the violation of these relics 

 may be condoned on the heathen principle of tit 

 for tat, because Art had, in the first instance, so to 

 speak, turned her back on some fair landscape that 

 Providence had provided upon the site, preferring 

 to focus man's eye within rather than without the 

 garden's bounds, therefore the vengeance is merited. 

 Yet, where change was desirable, it had been better 

 to modify than to destroy. 



" Cut is the branch that might have grown full straight, 

 And burned is Apollo's laurel bough." 



Certain it is that along with the girdle of high 

 hedge or wall has gone that air of inviting mystery 

 and homely reserve that our forefathers loved, and 

 which is to me one of the pleasantest traits of an 

 old English garden, best described as 



" A haunt of ancient peace." 



