256 COME INTO THE GARDEN 



rock garden throughout with a suitable dwelling 

 in the midst, the whole secluded from the com- 

 moner elements of the world without. Now 

 and then a small garden may have a corner or 

 an end descending abruptly enough to allow of 

 its being planted out with shrubs and trees and 

 made the site of a small rock garden; and of 

 course there are here and there individual op- 

 portunities which cannot be foreseen or guessed 

 for realization of all the ideals outlined. 



It would be idle to go on, therefore, in an at- 

 tempt to consider all kinds of possibilities; so 

 of the best site it is enough to add to the out- 

 line already given the advice never to attempt 

 to construct a rock garden where natural con- 

 ditions do not suggest this kind of garden above 

 all others — do not in fact seem to say clearly 

 that no other kind is possible. Where the earth's 

 great rock skeleton does not approach suffi- 

 ciently near the surface to be recognized, it is 

 distinctly an artificial enterprise that drags in 

 some of its parts from elsewhere and leaves 

 them wholly or partly exposed. It is indeed 

 so artificial that it offends the finer sense 

 of harmony and produces, almost invariably, 

 exactly the effect of their having been dragged 

 in! 



So much for where rock gardens do and do 



