CHAPTER XXIII 



HOME LANDSCAPE 



Symmetry certainly owed its origin to vanity and indolence : to 

 vanity, in attempting to force the situation to accord with the 

 building, instead of making the building suit the situation ; to 

 idleness, because it was more easy to work upon paper, which 

 will allow of any form, than to examine and combine the real 

 objects. — Marquis de Gerardin. 



Country places being so often in the midst of natur- 

 ally beautiful scenery, it is all the more deplorable that 

 in so many cases they are so disfigured as to drive 

 away the artist and make sad all who feel the ugHness 

 of the garden and foreground of the house. There are 

 so many hard lines, lifeless gardens, and abominations 

 in iron fencing, destroying all the tender grace of the 

 landscape, and weak, dotty plantings ; such crowding- 

 out by Cherry Laurels, often clipped to level, hard 

 lines, that the artist runs away from it all and seeks 

 refuge on the nearest common. These and other 

 sources of ugliness are absolutely unnecessary, and this 

 chapter is given to their consideration and avoidance. 



Earth puddings. There is a practice in the London 

 parks and elsewhere of raising mounds with the idea of 

 getting better landscape effect, but as generally carried 

 out it is against all good work in landscape gardening. 

 It is assumed by the mound-makers that the ground is 

 not right for their purpose, and so heaps of earth are 

 thrown up here and there to change the form of the 



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