GARDENS OLD AND NEW. 



" In this pleasant soil 

 His far more pleasant garden God ordaiu'd. 



" With mazy error under pendent shades 

 Ran nectar, visiting each plant, and fed 

 Flow'rs worthy of Paradise, which not nice Art 

 In beds and curious knots, but Nature boon 

 Pour'd forth profuse on hill, and dale, and plain, 

 Both where the morning sun first warmly smote 

 The open field, and where the uupierc'd shade 

 Inibrown'd the noontide bow'rs; thus was this place 

 A happy rural seat of various view. 



" Another side, umbrageous grots and caves 

 Of cool recess, o'er which the mantling vine 

 Lays forth her purple grape, and gently creeps 

 Luxuriant; meanwhile murm'ring waters fall 

 Down the slope hills, dispers'd, or in a lake, 

 That to the fringed bank with myrtle crown'd 

 Her crystal mirror holds, unite their streams." 



The landscape garden did not altogether satisfy, and, as 

 we shall show, by its very nature, in its extreme form, 

 never could. The effort to simulate natural beauties, to make 



the tall spires of foxgloves and larkspurs, and a multitude 

 of fair denizens of the parterre. Richness characterises the 

 whole, and the sentinel yews, the hedges, and box edgings are 

 there to give order and distinction with the right degree of 

 formality that belongs to the structure that is adorned. The 

 moral sundial, the splashing fountain, the sheltered arbour, 

 and the fragrant pergola, all have their places in such a 

 garden. Nor need the landscape and the woodland with the 

 lake be contemned. These lie outside the enclosed gardens, 

 and all are beautiful and entrancing in their degree and place. 

 The final fact is simple, after all, and the gardener must make 

 it his own. It is that the house and the garden are the two 

 parts of a single whole, and happy is he who can best interpret 

 their sweet relationship." 



With such a broad mind let the reader examine the 

 beautiful pictures that are presented to him in this volume. 

 They are the story of much excellent endeavour in garden 

 design, and the visible presentment of many triumphs. We 

 believe that a survey of their character will lead many to 

 accept the type of garden that has just been suggested. Many 



A WAYSIDE COTTAGE NEAR HAMPTON COURT, L r OM!NSTER. 



the garden a landscape chiefly, often featureless, and to 

 remove visible boundaries when boundaries were necessarily 

 looked for, seems to have been regarded as the ideal by some 

 of the followers of Brown, and notably by Repton. But there 

 followed a certain recoil from the new manner, which, 

 growing stronger, induced Englishmen again to study more 

 closely the older manner of garden design, while retaining 

 all that they could of the beauties of the new. It may be 

 suitable here to quote what was said in the Introduction to 

 the first series of this work by pointing out some of the 

 characteristic beauties of the garden as it is now conceived. 

 " Fortunate is he who looks out from his terrace with its mossy 

 parapet, where the peacock, perchance, shakes out its purple 

 glories to such a world of his own. Roses are clustering on the 

 wall, or flinging out their fragrance below in the sun, mingled 

 with the rare perfume of the aromatic azalea. Along the edge 

 of the lawn his flower border is glorious with the queenly 

 lily, the dark blue monk's-hood, the tall hollyhock, the spiked 

 veronica, the red lychnis, radiant phloxes, proud pasonies, 



of its charms must indeed be sought in a pleasaunce that is 

 ordered and possessed with some character of formality. To 

 such a garden belongs the terrace, which, in a multitude of 

 forms, has been adopted in all our gardens, and has been 

 imported into every style; for it has been the effort of many 

 to secure some variety of level, and at each break in the 

 ground it has been found satisfying to the eye to raise some 

 stronger mark or barrier than the mere edge of a short declivity. 

 The garden architect and sculptor have here found their 

 opportunity, and there are examples of their work in this 

 volume that will appeal to very many. 



Let us now enquire a little more in detail into the 

 character of those old pleasaunces of which we read in many 

 books, premising that those who would pursue the subject 

 further may do so with delight in the fascinating pages of 

 Mr. A. F. Sieveking's charming volume, "The Praise of 

 Gardens." Reference has been made to the Tuscan villa of 

 Pliny. Now, tlu-ri- was in that ancient pleasaunce a terrace 

 embellished with figtires and with a box hedge, beyond which 



