144 WALL AND WATER GARDENS 



Violet, Iris, Poppy, Jasmine, and Vine, are still among 

 the best, yet we are no longer tied to those and a few 

 others only. The great quantity we have now to 

 choose from is in itself a danger, for in the best and 

 most refined kinds of formal gardening one is more 

 than ever bound to the practice of the most severe 

 restraint in the choice of kinds, and to accept nothing 

 that does not in its own place and way satisfy the 

 critical soul with the serene contentment of an abso- 

 lute conviction. 



I therefore propose to give one example of a por- 

 tion of a formal garden such as I hold to be one of 

 the most pleasant and desirable kind, and such as will 

 present somewhat of the aspect, and fill the mind with 

 somewhat of the sentiment, of those good old gardens 

 of Italy. And though the initial expense will be 

 heavy — for irl work of this kind the artist's design 

 must be carried out to the smallest detail, without 

 skimping or screwing, or those frequent and disas- 

 trous necessities of lopping or compromise that so 

 often mar good work — yet the whole would be so 

 solid and permanent that the cost of its after-main- 

 tenance would be small out of all proportion with 

 that of the usual large gardens. These always seem 

 as if purposely designed to bind upon the shoulders 

 of their owners the ever-living burden of the most 

 costly and wasteful kind of effort in the trim keeping 

 of turf and Box edging and gravelled walks, with the 

 accompanying and unavoidable vexatious noises of 

 rumbling roar of mowing machine, clicking of shears, 

 and clanking grind of iron roller. In the chief por- 



