6 STUDIES IN GARDENING 



not supposed to be looked at, however conspicuous 

 it may be. It is regarded as a mere nuisance in the 

 garden; and, consequently, a nuisance and an eye- 

 sore it remains. 



There are, of course, many people who will not have 

 untidiness of any kind in their gardens, and whose 

 banks are at least tidy. But they usually take a 

 great deal of unnecessary trouble in keeping them 

 so. Either they cover them with grass, or else they 

 hide them with shrubs, probably laurels, which are 

 carefully clipped quite level. Now, this is just as 

 troublesome as grass, and much more irrational. 

 There is no purpose or meaning whatever in a clipped 

 shrubbery, particularly on a steep bank. It does not 

 explain itself, like a hedge; and its only effect is to 

 make the bank look a few feet higher. Laurels suffer 

 more than most shrubs from being clipped, since 

 their leaves are too large to make a close even texture 

 like that of a clipped yew, and they are beautiful 

 only when allowed to blossom and grow tall. There- 

 fore, a clipped bank of laurel is an example of the 

 worst kind of formal gardening, of formality in the 

 treatment of plants, and not in design. There is no 

 such formality in the proper treatment of a steep 

 bank, and much less labour is required for it. 



No doubt the common neglect or misuse of steep 

 banks and slopes has been caused by the belief that 

 no plants of any value will grow upon them; and 

 this belief arose at a time when our gardens were 

 filled only with bedding plants, few of which, it must 



