European and Japanese Gardens 



A FOUNTAIN 



GARDENS OF THE LUXEMBOURC 



insignificant and scattered elements of preceding practice 

 into a finely realized ensemble which stands up proudly, over- 

 shadowing the earlier time and shedding light over our own. 



Before his time there had been comparatively little varia- 

 tion in the design of gardens. One work mimicked another, 

 the same effects being reproduced with only slight changes to 

 suit the individual requirements or difficulties of the client or 

 the situation. No great underlying principles of design were 

 recognized, and no effort had been made to get outside of 

 the work and look at it in a large way, objectively. Errors 

 and imperfections had constantly arisen from miscalculations 

 of foreshortening, the easiest of faults to make, and the most 

 difficult to obviate, except by long and dearly bought experi- 

 ence. A plan or bird's-eye view, as everyone knows, may be 

 charming, and yet the execution prove very disappointing, 

 owing to just this awful difference in the foreshortening. If 

 this is true now, with numberless examples of landscape work 

 from which to argue, on which to base one's judgment, how 

 much greater must have been the difficulty in former times. 



