208 STUDIES IN GARDENING 



it, they must not lose sight of the different kinds of 

 beauty that is proper to large spaces. It has often 

 been remarked that, in certain details, such as their 

 porches and west fronts, our cathedrals were designed 

 as if they were little churches; and, in the same way 

 and for the same reasons, our modern large gardens 

 are often designed on a small scale suggested by the 

 cottage garden. The borders are not long enough, 

 the lawns not large enough, the paths too often broken 

 and curved, the shrubs dotted about without any 

 system or purpose. There are other reasons for these 

 defects besides the cottage garden ideal. One is the 

 landscape fashion which has not yet passed away; 

 another is the new fashion for having different kinds 

 of gardens, rock and water and rose, or gardens for 

 different seasons of the year; and another, closely 

 connected with the last, is the growing interest in the 

 more difficult kinds of horticulture, in the culture of 

 plants that require special conditions. The am- 

 bitious gardener nowadays is apt to lose sight of de- 

 sign altogether in his attempts to solve different 

 horticultural problems; and he is the more ready to 

 lose sight of design because he does not understand 

 that a large garden will not look as well as a cottage 

 garden, unless its design, like that of the cottage 

 garden, is adapted to its scale. A large garden can 

 no more imitate a cottage garden than a large house 

 can imitate a cottage. Just as the irregularity which 

 is pleasing and full of character in a cottage becomes 

 incoherent and absurd in a large house, so the ir- 



