PRIVATE GARDENS 347 



met with. Within Regent's Park there are several 

 charming gardens round the detached villas, which have 

 been already noticed in the chapter on that Park. The 

 two most interesting from a horticultural point of view 

 are St. Katharine's and St. John's Lodges. The fountain 

 in the former is the frontispiece to this volume, and 

 that view says more than any elaborate description. It 

 might be in some far-away Italian garden, so perfectly 

 are the sights and sounds of London obliterated. On 

 a still, hot day, when the fountain drips with a cool 

 sound and there is a shimmering light of summer over 

 the distant trees beyond the terrace, the delusion is per- 

 fect. Most of the herbaceous plants which take kindly 

 to London grow in the border — hollyhocks, day lilies, 

 poppies, peonies, pulmoneria and lilies, while there is a 

 large variety of flowering shrubs — ribes, lilacs, buddleias, 

 shumachs and Aralia spinosa. The kitchen-garden pro- 

 duces good crops of most of the ordinary vegetables. 

 The garden is arranged with a definite design ; there is 

 nothing specially formal, no cut trees or anything asso- 

 ciated with some of the formal ideas in England, but there 

 is method in the design ; the trees and plants grow as 

 Nature intended them, but they are not stuck about in 

 incongruous disorder and meaningless, distorted lines, 

 as is so often thought necessary, in designing a garden or 

 ** improving " a park. 



St. John's Lodge has also a well-thought-out garden, 

 some of it of a distinctly formal type. The coloured 

 illustration of it is taken from a part of the garden 

 enclosed with cut privet hedges, with a fountain in the 

 centre, on which stands a statue of St. John the Baptist, 

 by Mr. Johnes. Between the four wide grass walks 

 there are masses of herbaceous plants, backed by rhodo- 



