CHAPTER VIL 



CHARACTER — PROPRIETY. 



Two qualities usually distinguish professional from 

 amateur productions— simplicity and breadth of treatment. 



Ed. Andre. 



L'espressione esagerata o negletta constituisce. . . . 

 due difetti oppositi, il barocco. ed il secco o freddo,tra i 

 quali procede amabile la semplicitk. F. Cartolano. 



Character is the most elusive quality of all those 

 with which we deal. Almost all writers on gardening 

 have talked more or less of character, assuming it as a 

 quality, but never approaching a definition or an ex23la- 

 nation. Thomas Wheatley did, in fact, long ago intro- 

 duce a chapter *'0f Character" into his remarkably 

 clear analytical outline ; but tlie chapter treated of sub- 

 jects quite different from those discussed here. If I 

 may venture on the dangerous experiment of a provi- 

 sional definition, I will say that I intend to suggest by 

 the term character those more delicate distinctions in 

 the general method of treatment, such as may mark one 

 comjiosition from another, even of the same general 

 style. "We understand clearly what is meant by char- 

 acter in a man or woman, and I should like to transfer 

 this notion undisturbed to use in the descriptions of 

 gardens. It is a common saying that the face of such 

 and such an acquaintance is pretty but it lacks charac- 

 ter. It is i^erfectly conceivable that a garden might be 

 faultless in the. unity and the harmony of its appoint- 

 ments, with everything beautiful and appropriate withal, 

 and yet lack character. 



In different words, we might say that character is 

 the personal impress of the designer. Thus we would 

 never expect a poem of pure and lofty character to flow 



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