Utility versus Beauty 



in your own garden as an accessory, what- 

 ever statistics show, which is not to be fore- 

 gone ; and, as to the pleasure of getting 

 trees and shrubs in their proper places, 

 who that has read these chapters can 

 doubt that they are a source of amuse- 

 ment and instruction alike, even to the 

 most unpractical of their protectors ? 



The problems of the old place will con- The puzzle 

 tinue to develop and add puzzle to puzzle 

 in our uninstructed minds ; we may pay 

 dear for our whistle, but we shall have 

 the whistle anyhow. After a few more 

 years of experiment and failure, or suc- 

 cess, as the wheel turns, we shall proba- 

 bly come to the conclusion to let the grass 

 and shrubs grow as they will under the 

 trees, and let the rest go, which will, I am 

 disposed to think, be wholly to the advan- 

 tage of the looker-on. But while some 

 vestige of vigor is left to us, we shall think 

 the puzzle part more interesting than the 

 solution, and so struggle happily on, set- 

 ting for ourselves ingenious examples, to 

 be painfully worked out perhaps to a 

 wrong result. Interest in the place will 

 be less when we can no longer tinker at it 

 285 



