THE COUNTRY YARD 



Of course, it may easily happen in the coun- 

 try as elsewhere, that the objective point for a 

 garden composition will be lacking. Instead of 

 opening up the paths and alleys on your home 

 ground, it may be desired to lead them nowhere, 

 because they might otherwise carry the eye to a 

 factory, a stable, a stone heap, a dump, a neg- 

 lected farm, a freight shed or some such un- 

 agreeable matter. In a case like that you can 

 do no better than build a hedge and close the 

 view entirely, treating your space thereafter 

 in substantially the same manner as the city 

 yard. 



In the country we do not hide our horticul- 

 ture from the eyes of men, because we do not 

 erect big rows of flats and shops between our 

 gardens and the road. A country house de- 

 mands a margin. It will have a yard in front, 

 as well as a space at the side or back. Hence it 

 has room for show, to put it vulgarly; for the 

 manner has never obtained with us, and let us 

 pray it never will, of building villages solidly, in 

 blocks, as they do in parts of France and Eng- 

 land — a fashion passed down from the time 

 when the peasantry clung for employment and 



83 



