ON GARDENS 41 



grand fundamental and standard work on English 

 Gardens." Mason, the poet, declared that " Bacon 

 was the prophet, Milton the herald of modern 

 Gardening, and Addison, Pope, and Kent the 

 champions of the taste." It is amusing to find that 

 both schools claim Bacon and Milton as exponents 

 of their views. 



There is no doubt that the old Formal Garden 

 lost its simplicity and became filled with intricate 

 devices which needed moderation, but not destruc- 

 tion. The reformers who stepped in to remove this 

 prodigality of absurd taste fell into exactly the 

 same fault, in a different direction, as that they 

 attempted to correct. 



Perhaps Sir Walter Scott shows most clearly the 

 merits of both schools in his " Essay on Landscape 

 Gardens," written in 1828, taking for "his keynote 

 the choice of the best that has been done in design- 

 ing, laying out, ' composing ' or building Gardens 

 in every age, adapted to the particular site and 

 its material and architectural surroundings." 



To-day, from the vast advance of horticulture, 

 the face of a Garden is entirely changed. Flowers 

 exist and grow in English Gardens that the old 

 Gardeners never even dreamt of, much less could 

 imagine in their Gardens. Tropical trees help to 

 shade modern Lawns, and the people who walk on 

 them have changed as greatly as the flowers in 

 their Gardens by which they are surrounded. 



