SEPTEMBER 171 



protection. The paths were laid with that short turf 

 that grows on Surrey commons, and only wants mowing 

 three or four times a year. The planting had been done 

 with the greatest skill, almost imperceptibly getting more 

 and more cared for and refined as it got nearer the 

 house. Here I saw, among many other things, the 

 finest specimens of the smaller Magnolias, Stellata and 

 Conspicua. This surprised me, as I thought they 

 required heavy soil. The ground had been thoroughly 

 well made, and they were well away from any trees that 

 could rob them ; but in the lightest, dryest soil they were 

 far finer plants than the specimen plants in the grass 

 lawns at Kew. This whole garden was such a beautiful 

 contrast from the usual planning and clearing-away of 

 all the natural advantages that generally surround a 

 place which is being built or altered. The land, as a 

 rule, is dug over and made flat, and planted in the usual 

 horrible shrubbery style. I have seen such wonderful 

 natural advantages thrown away, a copse laid low to 

 extend a lawn, a lovely spring, which could have been 

 turned into a miniature river, made into a circular pond, 

 with Laurels, Rhododendrons, and other shrubs dotted 

 about, and twisted gravel paths made round it. Another 

 lovely natural pond I knew, into which the rains drained, 

 though nearly at the top of a hill, where water was 

 precious and scarce. Now it is cemented all round with 

 hard, cold cement, on which nothing can grow, and into 

 which, in the wettest of weather, the water can no longer 

 drain. The pond never fills, and nothing can grow 

 around it. I know few things more depressing than an 

 utter want of feeling for Nature's ways of playing the 

 artist, as she does at every turn. I cannot understand 

 anyone walking down a hilly road after rain without 

 admiring the action of the water on its surface, with the 

 beautiful curves and turns and sand islands that Nature 



