MY OWN ACRE 



On the other hand, I hope my acre, despite all 

 its unconscious or unconfessed mistakes, shows 

 pleasantly that the best openness of a lawn is not 

 to be got between unclothed, right-angled and 

 parallel bounds. The more its verdure-clad 

 borders swing in and out the longer they look, 

 not merely because they are longer but also 

 because they interest and lure the eye. "Where 

 are you going ? " says the eye. 



"Come and see,'* says the roaming line. 



"Don't" plant in stiff lines except in close 

 relation to architectural or legal bounds. A 

 straight horizontal line Nature scarcely knows 

 save in her rocks and on a vaster scale than we 

 here have to do with. Yet straight lines in gar- 

 dening are often good and fine if only they are 

 lines of real need. Where, when and in what 

 degree it is good to subordinate utility to beauty 

 or beauty to utility depends on time, place and 

 circumstance, but when in doubt "don't" pinch 

 either to pet the other. Oppression is never 

 good art. Yet "don't" cry war, war, where 

 there is no war. A true beauty and a needed 

 utility may bristle on first collision but they soon 



33 



