NOTES ON THE ILLUSTRATIONS 



not so much the accidental picturesqueness of the place which has been 

 left to grow up as it liked that matters to the students of the art, or 

 that needs to be illustrated in a book with a purpose quite as much 

 practical as aesthetic ; the decorative results, foreseen and prepared 

 for, have more meaning because thev express more clearly the 

 designer's aims. The decorative picturesqueness with its qualities 

 of orderlv, well-balanced adjustment of part to part, with its beauty of 

 calculated relation of mass to mass and line to line, with its coherent 

 explanation of the importance of a skilfully laid scheme, is the true 

 concern of the enquirer into the secrets of garden-making. What 

 is admired in a wild garden is the imitative ability of the gardener 

 who has been able to establish within the narrow boundaries of a 

 small plot something which suggests nature's prodigal adornment of 

 the forest thicket or the river-bank. What is to be enjoyed in the 

 formal garden — and it must be remembered that there are many 

 degrees of formality — is the understanding with which he has called 

 upon nature for assistance in perfecting what is really an architectural 

 plan. Without attempting in any way to disparage the charm of 

 the wild or natural piece of landscape gardening, it may fairly enough 

 be said that the formality which does not run into mechanical 

 excesses ranks higher in the scale of artistic invention and is, 

 therefore, more fit for record. 



So in this series there are again presented the best available illus 

 trations of premeditated gardening, and the educational mission or 

 the present volume is as plainly defined as that of its predecessor. 

 For the better fulfilling of this mission it is necessary that some briet 

 notes should be included on the illustrations themselves and that 

 some reference should be made to the history and characteristics of 

 the places which have provided the subjects for the plates. As the 

 plates are arranged alphabetically the simplest way will be to note 

 them in the order in which they appear rather than to group them 

 for the purpose of instituting comparisons — in fact any systematic 

 comparison is not needed because each of the gardens selected 

 represents one or other of the many recognised types of design, 

 and the points of difference or resemblance between them are not 

 difficult to discover. 



The garden of Alton Towers (Plates II. to V.), which comes first 

 on the list, is distinguished by the variety of its architectural 

 features and by the soundness of its design. It is laid out on 

 formal lines, but without stiffness, and in effect it is admirably 

 rich because by the lapse of many years it has arrived at full 

 development. At Arley Hall (Plates VI. and VII.) the gardens, 

 xxii 



