DESIGN AND POSITION. 25 



with our present materials. If that art is to be mastered, the work 

 of a life must be given to it more than that, a life's devotion, and no 

 less is the sacrifice his own art requires of the architect. 



No one " style " right. There is no such thing as a style fitted for 

 every situation ; only one who knows and studies the ground well will 

 ever make the best of a garden, and any " style " may be right where 

 the site fits it. I never see a house the ground around which does 

 not invite plans for itself only. A garden on the slopes about Naples 

 is impossible without much stonework to support the earth, while about 

 London or Paris there is usually no such need. But these considera- 

 tions never enter into the minds of men who plant an Italian garden 

 in one of our river valleys, where in nine cases out of ten an open 

 lawn is often the best thing before the house, as at Bristol House, 

 Roehampton ; Greenlands, Henley-on-Thames ; and in many gardens 

 in the Thames valley. And there are right and wrong ways where 

 we cannot have a lawn garden : Haddon, simple, right, and charming 

 on the one hand, and Chatsworth on the other ; Knole and Ightham 

 and Rockingham without a yard of stonework not absolutely needed 

 for the house and its approaches, and others with a fortune spent in 

 vast display of costly stonework, only effective in robbing the fore- 

 ground of a fine landscape of all repose. 



The idea that the old style of building in England was always 

 accompanied by elaborate terrace gardening is proved to be erroneous 

 by many beautiful old houses. The Elizabethan house had often an 

 ample lawn in front or plenty of grass near, and such houses are 

 quite as delightful in effect as the old houses and castles where 

 terracing was necessary and right, owing to the ground, such as 

 Berkeley, Powis, and Rockingham. The mosaic in flower-planting is 

 a modern idea, and had nothing to do with old gardens, which, how- 

 ever planned, had their flowers planted in simple ways. 



The idea that trees must be clipped to make them " harmonise " 

 with architecture is a mere survival. In the old days of garden 

 design, when in any northern country there were few trees in 

 gardens, these trees were slashed into any shape that met the de- 

 signer's view. But now that many beautiful trees and shrubs are 

 coming to us from many countries, the aim of true gardening is, so far 

 from mutilating them, to develop their natural forms. In by far the 

 greater number of beautiful places in England, from Knole to Haddon, 

 and from the fine west-country houses to the old border castles, there 

 are many of the fairest gardens where the trees are never touched 

 with shears. Sutton Place, near Guildford, built in 1521, is one of the 

 most beautiful old houses in the home counties, and its architecture 

 is none the less delightful because the trees near show their true 



