LANDSCAPE GARDENING 



LANDSCAPE GARDENING 1793 



lake. The larger one is called Master Isle and is placed 

 in the foreground. It should be easily accessible from 

 the bank nearest the dwelling by stepping-stones, 

 causeway or a narrow neck of land. A tea-house usu- 

 ally ornaments a promontory overlooking the lake. 

 The names of stones on the island imply functions of 

 ease and recreation, such as, Amusement Seat Stone, 

 or Stone of Easy Rest. The second island should be 

 smaller and is called Guest Isle, in honor of visitors. It 

 is located in the background and the stones on it are 

 named Guest Honoring Stone, Stone of Obeisance, 

 Shoe Removing Stone, Water Fowl Stone, and so on. 



Carefully studied effects from nature are introduced 

 to blend the whole into a harmonious and well-propor- 

 tioned picture. Variations 

 and adaptions from such 

 classical models are made 

 according to taste of the 

 artist, or to conform to the 

 natural features and limita- 

 tions of the location. 



The author is indebted for 

 assistance in preparing this 

 article to the work "Land- 

 scape Gardening in Japan," 

 by Josiah Conder, who is the 

 recognized authority on the 

 subject, from which two of 

 the sketches in Fig. 2085, and 

 also Fig. 2086, are adapted. 

 WILLIAM VERBECK. 



Formal gardens. 



Historically considered, the 

 formal garden is the gradual, 

 natural evolution of the herb- 

 and vegetable-garden which, 

 since time immemorial, for 

 household convenience was 

 established near the country 

 house. This garden assumed 

 geometric form, because 

 economical in space, easy of 

 arrangement and distribution 



introduced and the formal garden slowly produced 

 itself. 



With the development of the fine arts and the 

 accumulation of wealth, the art of gardening prospered, 

 and the same principles of design which governed the 

 arrangement of the pleasure-garden were applied to the 

 more extensive layout of the entire country place. 



Congruity, utility and convenience, simplicity, 

 harmony and balance, the fundamental principles of 

 all landscape design, found obvious expression in the 

 formal conception. Thus the formal naturally became 

 the first style of gardening. 



This evolution is clearly apparent in all the great 

 periods of history: in Asia Minor, in Greece, and in the 



2086. Japanese garden, with stepping-stones in the foreground. 



and obviously well adapted to the shape and proportions 

 of the house. It was inclosed for safety; it had a central 

 water-basin for watering convenience. Medicinal 

 plants, small fruit trees, espalier fruit trees, and house- 

 hold vegetables were grown within the inclosure. 



Very early, undoubtedly, in the artistic development 

 of peoples, the beautiful aspects and possibilities of such 

 gardens at different seasons of the year must have 

 become apparent. Hence came a desire to improve 

 the general effect by proper arrangement of the plants 

 by well-balanced proportion, by ornamentation, and 

 by cultivation and improvement of the original utili- 

 tarian plants, or by the introduction of new ones. Grad- 

 ually, with a keener appreciation of beauty, persons 

 began to separate the utilitarian part of the garden 

 from the part devoted to pleasure and where only one 

 inclosure catered to the physical and spiritual needs of 

 the family, two separate units appeared: the pleasure- 

 or flower-garden and the kitchen- and herb-garden. 

 The geometrical form was naturally retained. The 

 design remained symmetrical, well-balanced, harmoni- 

 ous. The inclosure, when of masonry, became an 

 architectural feature adapted to the style of the house. 

 If hedges were used, they were clipped and kept at 

 uniform height. This cutting and trimming of the 

 hedges invited attempts at producing, with the shears, 

 green ornaments and fanciful shapes, and the topiary 

 art was born. The central basin of water originally 

 intended for purely utilitarian uses became the pool, 

 the fountain. Trellises, small temples, statues, well- 

 paved walks and ornaments of all kinds were gradually 



114 



Roman Empire. With the consolidation of the political, 

 economic, and artistic conditions of those great civiliza- 

 tions, and coincident with their reaching the supreme 

 stage of development, the art of gardening, exclusively 

 formal, reaches its highest form of expression. 



Political and military conditions in the Middle Ages 

 shrink the villa-gardens to their original proportions of 

 a kitchen-garden close to the walls of the castles, while 

 the return to freedom, culture and wealth during the 

 Renaissance restores the gardens to their former favor, 

 nay, to a splendor never equalled before nor since. France 

 and England imitate the Italian garden-art at first, then 

 forge rapidly ahead to great achievements of their own. 



In America, one may follow the same cycle. From the 

 herb- and vegetable-gardens answering the same pur- 

 poses and disposed in the same way as those of 

 antiquity, the art gradually develops and reproduces 

 on a somewhat smaller scale, and in a more intimate 

 and simple fashion, the formal gardens of the mother 

 countries. The colonial gardens appear in New Eng- 

 land and in the southern states, and gradually spread 

 all over the settlements of the Atlantic coast. His- 

 torically, therefore, as well as technically, the colonial 

 gardens belong in the general class of formal gardens. 



Technically analyzed, formal gardening, in its best 

 forms and examples, covers a limited area in the 

 immediate surroundings of the country house and is inti- 

 mately connected with it and its outbuildings. The prin- 

 cipal axes of the house are prolonged and maintained as 

 the principal axes of the gardens. Some of the adapta- 

 tions are shown in Figs. 2087-2091. 



