26 HOW THE GARDEN WAS MADE 



to another, and whether it be when shadows chase 

 across the rounded slopes some sunny April day 

 or in the silent heat-wave of summer, when its 

 greyness alone looks cool, or again when winter 

 snows turn it into something surprisingly tall and 

 white, there is always a secret to be disclosed, a 

 fresh charm to be understood. 



But, you will say, it is the garden we have come 

 to see, not the countryside ; and yet in most cases, 

 for preference, both these should be somewhat 

 commingled, especially where the house is only a 

 very small and unpretentious one. Certain it is 

 that, if the lines of woodland or distant hills are 

 seen from a house or garden, there should be co- 

 inciding lines in the pleasure-ground. Nothing 

 should clash or allow a feeling of discord to enter 

 into the peace of a garden. Therefore, when I see 

 my friends, those who are true lovers of nature, 

 unconscious of pergolas and terraces, standing on 

 the small oblong mown lawn below the house, 

 drinking in the beauty of the distant view, I am 

 happiest. Their faces assure me that human hands 

 have not done injury, that one's small gardening 

 efforts have not thrust themselves too obtrusively 

 into the foreground of this beautiful, natural 

 hillside picture. 



I feel, too, then, that the main feature of the 

 garden, a wide grass walk which goes down the 

 centre of it, with high, broad banks of flowering 

 shrubs and herbaceous plants upon either side, 

 has found favour. It leads the eye straight from 

 the windows of the house to the fields in the valley 

 below. Although it is long and takes a somewhat 



