Garden design and recent writings upon it 9 



worth his seeing and perhaps painting ? There is not, 

 and there never can be, any other true test. 



Even if our aim be right, the direction, as in many 

 other matters, may be vitiated by stupidity, as in gardens 

 where false Hnes and curves abound, as in the Champs- 

 El3^sees in Paris. It is quite right to see the faults of 

 this and to laugh at them; but how about those who 

 plant in true and artistic ways? In Paris there is cease- 

 less and inartistic and vain throwing up of the ground, 

 and sharp and ugly slopes, which are often against the 

 cultivation of the things planted. 



The rejection of clipped forms and book patterns of 

 trees set out like lamp-posts, costly walls where none are 

 wanted, and of all the too facile labours of the drawing- 

 board 'artist' in gardens, first carried out in England, 

 is set down by these writers on garden design as the 

 wicked invention of certain men. No account has been 

 taken of the eternally beautiful lessons of Nature or 

 even the simple facts which should be known to all who 

 write about such things. Thus in * The Art and Craft 

 of Garden Making' we read : — 



So far as the roads were concerned, Brown built up a theory 

 that, as Nature abhorred a straight line, it was necessary to 

 make roads curl about. Serpentine lines are said to be the 

 lines of Nature, and therefore beyond question the only 

 proper lines. 



But nothing is said of the very important fact that in 

 making paths or roads in diversified country it is often 

 absolutely necessary to follow the line of easiest grada- 

 tion, and this is often a beautiful bent line. In many 

 cases we are not twenty paces from the level space 

 around a house before we have to think of the lie of the 

 ground in making walks, roads, or paths. We are soon 



