CONCERNING LAWNS 339 



What then of all the beautiful things we say of 

 Nature? it may be asked. Why, only this: it 

 amounts to as much as all the beautiful things we 

 say about painted pictures, jewels, tapestries, old 

 lace, Chippendale furniture, and what not. We 

 are not in Nature; we are out of her, having made 

 our own conditions; and our conditions have 

 reacted upon and made us what we are artificial 

 creatures. Nature is now something pretty to go 

 and look at occasionally, but not too often, nor for 

 too long a time. 



So much in defence of my attitude concerning 

 lawns. There is no doubt that, seen at a right 

 distance, a fine country-house or mansion, standing 

 isolated from other buildings and from trees and 

 gardens, looks best on a level green expanse. At 

 this moment I recall Shaw House, Avington House, 

 and two or three others, but every reader who 

 knows England will have the image of half-a-dozen 

 or more such buildings in his mind. 



Now I think that this grass setting would be 

 just as effective or more effective if left more in its 

 natural state. Seen closely, the smooth lawn is a 

 weariness to the eye like all smooth monotonous 

 surfaces; like the smooth or oily un wrinkled sea, 

 for example, which the eye refuses to dwell on; or 

 like the blue sky without a cloud or a soaring bird 

 on it. Such a sky may be good to be under but 

 tiresome to the vision after three seconds. If you 

 look at it for a whole minute, or for an hour without 

 weariness, it is because you are thinking of some- 



