THE AMATEUR GARDEN 



question's form, but that is how she very mod- 

 estly asked it, and I will take no liberty with its 

 construction. I thought his reply a good one. 



"We have all," he said, "come up from wild 

 nature. In wild nature there are innumerable 

 delights, but they are qualified by countless in- 

 conveniences. The cave, tent, cabin, cottage 

 and castle have gradually been evolved by an 

 orderly accumulation and combination of de- 

 fences and conveniences which secure to us a 

 host of advantages over wild nature and wild 

 man. Yet rightly we are loath to lose any more 

 of nature than we must in order to be her mas- 

 ters and her children in one, and to gather from 

 her the largest fund of profit and delight she can 

 be made to yield. Hence around the cottage, 

 the castle or the palace waves and blooms the 

 garden." 



Was he not right ? This is why, in our pleas- 

 ant Northampton affair, we have accepted it as 

 our first rule of private gardening that the house 

 is the climacteric note. 



This is why the garden should never be more 

 architectural and artificial than the house of 



46 



