276 A WHITE-PAPER GARDEN 



providing one, now that the eleventh hour is 

 long past, I am not now describing the twelfth 

 of a series. The chief precaution to be taken, 

 if stones or mortars be resorted to, is that there 

 be no regular shape to it and no sharply defined 

 outline. There are ferns enough, and iris 

 enough, and grasses and trailing things enough, 

 to make the garden and the pool themselves 

 unconscious where one ends and the other 

 begins. Here, as everywhere, the absolute 

 necessity of a background of shrubs presents 

 itself, and perhaps near here, if ever, a formal 

 seat may be admitted. I like the garden 

 furniture which can be easily moved about, 

 wicker chairs and tables, camp-stools, and so 

 on, and have never yet found pleasure in the 

 ordinary garden seat, which has usually a bit 

 of bare ground in front of it, a most uncom- 

 promising back, and a very unfortunate habit 

 of being in the sun just when shade would be 

 particularly agreeable. 



I have not said a word about the way in 

 which the house should be made one with the 

 garden. Houses we must have, whether we 

 like them or not, and although they often take 

 up space which it would be very agreeable to 



