42 A BOOK OF ENGLISH GARDENS 



Travelling and science have both indirectly 

 touched Gardens. And though individuality is 

 supposed to have been checked in the last century 

 and to be dying hard in this, in the Gardens of 

 to-day it is to be found on every side. No one 

 feels bound to follow any distinct style flowers run 

 riot, or a bedding-out system is followed, or more 

 often still the individual taste of the owner steps 

 in and moulds the Garden to his wish. Individuality 

 alas ! does not mean charm ; that is rarely met with 

 in the Gardens of to-day. There are beautiful 

 flowers and lovely green grass, but the charm which 

 used to linger in the beautiful Gardens designed by 

 Evelyn, and in such Gardens as Moor Park, Chis- 

 wick, and Nonsuch, has fled. Charm seems to 

 belong to the days when people wrote, thought 

 about, and planned their Gardens not only grew 

 flowers in them. 



It is the design, the simplicity of line which the 

 Terraces and old Yew hedges, cool and green, 

 gave to a Garden that are now lacking. The 

 gorgeous display of flowers, perfect in colour, wants 

 the shadow of the old Yews as a background, to 

 form a contrast and throw up their brilliance. 



It is this lack of contrast and arrangement that 

 is partly responsible for the absence of charm in 

 most modern Gardens. Charm goes with propor- 

 tion and simplicity, such as is found in the old 

 Formal Garden. However well the colour scheme 



