1854. 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



193 



, For the New England Farmer. 



WHAT A GARDEN SHOULD BE. 



Having reviewed somewhat hastily the general 

 innate love for gardens and their accompaniments, 

 together with their benefit to man, it will be well 

 beiore descril)ing any form or forms to go back a 

 little, and try to learn what lias always constitut- 

 ed a garden. The first of which we have any 

 knowledge, is the garden of Paradise, and wheth- 

 er a minute description would have been unwor- 

 thy Holy "Writ or not, we do not know anything 

 of the arrangement of its surface ; but as flowers 

 and fruits were spoken of promiscuously, and as it 

 was one of nature's own planting and arranging, 

 it is not unreasonable to presume it was of the 

 kind to which common consent has affixed th 

 term natural, owing to the absence or conceal- 

 ment of art, in contradistinction to the artificial 

 where art is ever made prominent, and where v^e 

 do not so much admire the beauties of nature, as 

 the inventor's genius. 



Man did not long possess this Paradise, and 

 ■was obliged to make gardens for himself; at first, 

 at least, he had too much to do to get his living to 

 give any time to the beautiful, and consequently 

 gardens are mentioned again only at a much later 

 period. In later times there were the gardens of 

 Babylon, with their pillars and terraces ; here art 

 was most distinctly seen; the natural and beauti- 

 ful elopes were eschewed, and rather than see and 

 own beauties of surface, and vegetation that were 

 free to rich and poor alike, the Babylonian aristo 

 orats mounted up in the air, on high pillars, ter- 

 races, "which they covered with a few inches of 

 earth, and managed to keep in a moderate state of 

 culture and vegetation by unwearied care. Such 

 gardens, doubtless, gave the city a very elegant 

 appearance from a distance, but could be a source 

 of personal gratification to very few. It is rea- 

 sonable to suppose, that then, as now, wealth did 

 not, by consequence, give an appreciation of the 

 beautiful, and douljtless many happy cottagers 

 had their little borders filled with beautiful flow- 

 ers and rich fruits which gave to their hard-work- 

 ing owners more zest and pleasure, than all the 

 luxury wealth could impart to its sated possessors. 



Nor is the Bible the only book that tells of the 

 gardens of antiquity : Homer describes the gar- 

 den of Alcinous, which was to him the most 

 magnificent aCTair the world could conceive. How 

 magnificent we should have thought it, we can 

 judge when wo know it was a four-acre lot fenced 

 in with a high green liedge, tliat enclosed a fruit, 

 flower and kitchen garden, all mixed together; 

 that it was laid out in straight lines and right an- 

 gles, and enlivened with an occasional statue. 



The Roman style copied closely the Grecian, 

 with the addition of labyrinths of paths and trees, 

 grottoes and caves, in rocks that were transported 

 for miles to ornament the grounds; on the sides 

 of the path were men and animals, cut out of box 

 and yew trees, statues and fountains; and amongst 

 the flower beds, round and oval fish-ponds ; all as 

 far as miglit be from the beautiful, luxuriant na- 

 ' ture of Italy. They eared not so much to devel- 

 ope nature, as to display the evidences of their 

 own wealth. 



In later times we find the stately gardens of 

 Versailles, and other European cities, uniformly 

 modelled by the most artistic hand, and to a great 



degree copies of those I have described as Roman. 

 It was reserved for England to sublime out of the 

 whole mass of artificial gardening, a truer and 

 more natural style. 



I have not attempted to give the exact steps, or 

 to delineate all the varieties of gardens and gar- 

 dening; but to show how slowly man progressed, 

 after being ejected from Paradise, to the true ap- 

 preciation and reproduction of the best natural 

 e fleets. 



But few are insensible to the beauties of flowers 

 and trees, or the grander charms of the wide- 

 spread landscape, combining mountains, hills, val- 

 leys forests, rivers, lakes; or the quiet seclusion 

 of the narrow dell, or the harmonious combina- 

 tion of grass and trees ; and as men became more 

 accustomed to analyze their likes and dislikes, 

 and the reasons for seeking or neglecting certain 

 objects capable oP giving pleasure or its opposite, 

 they asked themselves Avhy they still went to the 

 woods and fields to admire nature, and revel there 

 in her beauty of color, and luxurious abandon, 

 and yet produced at enormous expense in their cul- 

 tivated grounds nearest home, and most often to be 

 gazed upon, the very opposite of that the}" so 

 much loved ; and why they might not rather have 

 just these natural charms for the same money, and 

 be enabled to enjoy at home, what otherwise they 

 must seek abroad. 



Such a spirit soon introduced a more rational 

 system of tilings, and founded the natural style 

 of gardening. 



AH who have followed me in my narrative thus 

 far, will agree that tliis result was very desirable, 

 but unfortunately only to be enjoyed and prac- 

 ticed by the owners of extensive estates ; and they 

 particularly who have but a small piece of ground 

 adjoining the house to be devoted to flowers and 

 ornament, whilst they adi.iire the change, will de- 

 plore the necessity which from narrowness of 

 boundarj^ condemns them to the right-angular 

 and rigid in lines, and the systematic and precise 

 in matters of ornament. Here it will be best to 

 pause a little on the reasons for preferring one or 

 another kind of improvement, before giving any 

 special directions regarding the most 'desirable 

 changes. 



First, it is especially necessary not to confound 

 the idea of beauty with any mere conformation 

 of lines and figure ; too many who have become 

 dissatisfied with the system of right angles and 

 straiglit lines have fallen into tlie opposite ex- 

 treme, and now twist and turn their paths and 

 walks for no good at all, till they become more 

 ridiculous and disagreeable than the straight. Re- 

 member that a chief element of beauty is fitness, 

 and that nothing can compensate for its al)sence. 

 Instinctively tlie mind associates the idea of 

 paths with getting somewhere ; now if any path 

 seems bent liere and there at v.-ill, by which the 

 distance is prolonged, the effect is disagreeable; 

 but if it evidently tends to avoid an elevation, 

 a group of trees, or any other natural obstacle, 

 it is at once agreeable and praisewortiiy, and if 

 the arrangements on eitlier side are such as the^y 

 should be, the change for the most direct route is 

 not noticed. Deception is at all times unworthy, 

 but to get the greatest amount of pleasure and 

 beauty is not deception, and if any path or wood is 

 deflei-t(id to gain citlier, no argument based upon 

 deception is applicable. 



