THE 



ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. 



CHAPTER I. 



ART IN RELATION TO FLOWER-GARDENING AND GARDEN DESIGN, 



THERE is no reason why we should not have true art in the garden, 

 but much why we should have it, and no reason why a garden 

 should be ugly, bare, or conventional. The word " art " being used 

 in its highest sense here, it may perhaps be well to justify its use, 

 and as good a definition of the word as any perhaps is " power to 

 see and give form to beautiful things," which we see shown in 

 some of its finest forms in Greek sculpture and in the works of the 

 great masters of painting. 



But art is of many kinds, and owing to the loose, " critical " 

 talk of the day, it is not easy to see that true art is based on clear- 

 eyed study of and love for Nature, rather than invention and the 

 bringing of the "personality" of the artist into the work, of which 

 we hear so much. The work of the artist is always marked by its 

 fidelity to Nature, and proof of this may be seen in the greatest 

 art galleries now open to all, so that there is little to hide evidence as 

 to what is said here about art in its highest expression. But as a 

 number of people write much about art in the magazines and papers, 

 while blind as bats to its simple law, there is infinite confusion in 

 many minds about it, and we may read essay after essay about art 

 without being brought a bit nearer to the simple truth, but on the 

 other hand get the false idea that it is not by observing, but by 

 inventing and supplementing, that good work is done. The strong 

 man must be there, but his work is to see the whole beauty of 

 the subject, and to help us to see it, not to distort it in any way 

 for the sake of making it " original." This is often a way to popu- 

 larity, but in the end it means bad work. It may be the fashion for 



B 2 



