SHRUBBERIES. 35 



will be given than at present to the proper 

 harmony of colours. It really would sometimes 

 appear that half our English gardeners must be, 

 colour-blind. The gaudiest and most glaring 

 contrasts pain instead of gratifying the eye, 

 with their crude patches of pink and red and 

 blue and yellow. In France the bedded-out 

 borders have more generally a variety of plants 

 mixed on the same bed, and this certainly tends 

 to soften the general effect. 



But both in the outside lawns and shrubberies, 

 and in the walled inner garden, there is much 

 room for improvement. A great principle in 

 laying out the lawns is the old principle of 

 Batty Langley's (a principle which he himself 

 parodied rather than illustrated) of so arranging 

 your grounds that everything cannot be seen at 

 once, and that each turn of the walks excites 

 some fresh interest. The curved lines of a 

 shrubbery, now approaching and now receding, 

 the grass running up into little bays and recesses 

 among deodaras and groups of rhododendrons, 

 specimen trees occasionally breaking a formal 



D 2 



