DESIGN 169 



find himself or herself altogether out of sympathy with 

 four, and quite involuntarily prepared to take sides 

 with the fifth. Spanish warrior, English adventurer, 

 Dutch burgher, Puritan reformer and peaceful Quaker, 

 all made their gardens in this fair and fragrant land 

 within the same century; and the hand of each writ 

 large upon the earth its signature. Which will you 

 have? 



Which is the best which offers most? These, of 

 a certainty, are the instant demand; but be not de- 

 ceived. Your final choice is not going to be deter- 

 mined by the answers, even though the questions are 

 deliberated over and well weighed, and a scrupulous, 

 judicial attitude is maintained. No indeed; it is some- 

 thing within that has already leaped and claimed its 

 own, even as the deliberating and weighing are going 

 on, which decides the matter. Deep in the heart of 

 hearts of every one of us there is this correspondence 

 with our own which nothing can shatter; and all 

 choosing against it, let me say in passing, is wrong 

 choosing, be the choice never so plausible and well in- 

 tentioned. "Which is best?" means therefore, which 

 is best for the asker; "which offers most?" which 

 offers most to him who has raised the query. 



Taken in the largest sense, design as applied to 

 an estate and gardens means simply plan, refined 

 and perfected until it expresses beauty as well as con- 



