WILD GARDENS 271 



that discourage endeavor, sometimes rough 

 ground configuration generally and perhaps the 

 presence of large trees and of undergrowth. 

 Building plots at the edge of woods or sidling 

 down into a gully may be suited to nothing else 

 but a wild garden — probably will be; but this 

 is not to say that now and then a plot that is 

 neither of these may not have in and about it 

 other elements that make it congenial ground 

 for this treatment. 



One must judge for himself; always with the 

 ideal of accepting Nature's suggestion however, 

 and never with the purpose of forcing the issue. 

 Certainly all connection with tamed or culti- 

 vated lands must be avoided; and certainly 

 there must be no hint whatsoever, within a wild 

 garden, of any of man's usual enterprises. If 

 these two conditions can be met anywhere, the 

 wild garden will not be an anachronism; but 

 if, by reason of any element in the surroundings 

 of a place, such absolute sequestration is out of 

 the question, the wild garden should be aban- 

 doned for a concept in harmony with unyielding 

 conditions. 



This is no more than is true of the rock garden, 

 or of a water garden on naturalistic lines. It is 

 indeed the one thought reiterated perhaps to a 

 wearisome degree, in every chapter — that there 



