x A FOREWORD AND A PLEA 



That we have opinions does not, or should not, mean 

 that we expect others to espouse them immediately upon 

 their recitation, and, if the ideas hereafter set forth are 

 expressed with some fervour, the spirit actuating them is 

 not dictatorial, not even argumentative, but wholly en- 

 thusiastic and sympathetic. 



There is as much said nowadays, as there has always 

 been, upon the styles of gardening, and each advocate 

 claims for his especial school all the virtues, leaving for 

 the rest none at all, so that it is a bit bewildering to know 

 how so many different kinds of gardens can be so lovely; 

 but the answer is, it seems to me, that styles and schools 

 have little to do with the charm and beauty of a garden; 

 that the vital secret lies much deeper in the gardener 

 himself, and is born of his artistic perception and his 

 power to take infinite pains to adapt his means to an 

 end, which end is loveliness. In gardening, as in other 

 matters, the true test of our work is the measure of our 

 possibilities. 



Of the various schools, our garden would be termed 

 formal, for there are the straight lines, the geometrical 

 curves, the ordered design, the intention of man and the 

 indication of his hand frankly confessed and plainly 

 visible beneath the luxuriance a sweet austerity dimly 

 felt beneath the cajoleries of witching vine and creeper, 

 of gay flowers rioting in their sun-bathed beds. And 

 while I love best the "balanced beauty" "carefully par- 

 celled out and enclosed" of this type of garden, I love, too, 



