io6 GARDEN-CRAFT. 



the grass, and the general surface of the ground 

 shall be characterised by smoothness and bareness 

 (like Nature) ! Hence in the grounds of this period, 

 house and country 



" Wrapt all o'er in everlasting green 

 Make one dull, vapid, smooth and tranquil scene." 



There is to my mind no more significant testi- 

 mony to the attractiveness and loveableness of the 

 regiilar garden as opposed to the opened-out bar- 

 barism of the landscape-gardener's invention, than 

 Horace Walpole's lament over the old gardens at 

 Houghton,* which has the force of testimony wrung 

 from unwilling lips : 



"When I had drank tea I strolled into the garden. They told 

 me it was now called the ''pleasure-ground? What a dissonant idea 

 of pleasure ! Those groves, those alleys, where I have passed so 

 many charming moments, are now stripped up, or overgrown ; many 

 fond paths I could not unravel, though with a very exact clue in my 

 memory. I met two gamekeepers and a thousand hares ! In the 

 days when all my soul was tuned to pleasure and vivacity, I hated 

 Houghton and its solitude ; yet I loved this garden ; as now, with 

 many regrets, I love Houghton ; Houghton, I know not what to call 

 it : a monument of grandeur or ruin ! " (Walpole's Letters.) 



''What a dissonant idea of pleasure," this so- 

 called "pleasure-ground of the landscape-gardener ! " 

 " Those groves, those alleys where I have passed so 

 many charming moments, stripped up! How I loved 

 this garden ! " Here is the biter bit, and it were to 

 be more than human not to smile I 



With all the proper appliances at hand it did not 



* Houghton was built by Sir R. Walpole, between 1722 and 1738. 

 The garden was laid out in the stiff, formal manner by Eyre, "an 

 imitator of Bridgman," and contained 23 acres. The park contains 

 some fine old beeches. More than 1000 cedars were blown down 

 here in February 1860. 



