THE PRECEDENT OF GARDEN DESIGN. 



planting avenues of one tree which fortunately were never discovered by the " garden 

 improvers." 



In their own way, too, and without arrogating to themselves the control of Nature, 

 the old-time designers secured those unlooked-for surprises and cosy retreats in which 

 she abounds, whereas the men who claimed the sole possession of her secrets perpetrated 

 the saddest kind of formalism, as may be seen to-day in the suburbs of all towns and 

 especially in their planting. The conscious effort to avoid a straight line is particularly 

 wearying and there is a satiating sameness in their methods of arranging deciduous 

 trees and pines, two or three of the former to one of the latter. 



Thus were the two schools of garden makers opposed to one another the first relying 

 on design for power of expression and the latter on their skill in imitating Nature. 

 Had Brown and his followers been content with imitation, they would have simply 

 perpetrated so many absurd and expensive frauds, but this did not meet the whole of 

 their misguided practice. Walks and drives and many other things were required which 

 could not be made to imitate Nature, and, as stated elsewhere, this led to many of 

 the garden designer's most promising media being treated as unfortunate necessities. 

 For the solution of the problem thus presented, the rule was invented that " Nature 

 abhors a straight line," for these self-styled followers of Nature had no eyes to see 

 the silver gleam across rippled water, the straight line in a sunset sky or the symmetry 

 of the towering pine. The indiscriminate application of this rule to roads, lawns and 

 other features could not but produce disastrous results. Drives were made to wriggle 

 across flat expanses where every other consideration would dictate a straight line, and 

 lawns also which were flat or only gently undulating had to be altered to imitate 

 " Nature in her best moods," and so "undulating" became a stock accomplishment. 



In dealing with the open landscape of the home park, however, the work of this 

 school is often commendable for its breadth. Theirs was a great age for the planter. 

 Although they demolished avemies which, they said, arbitrarily parcelled the landscape 

 off into sections and prevented breadth of effect, they largely atoned for this by em- 

 phasizing the natural features, by crowning the heights and planting their slopes with 

 homely native trees, and clearing timber from the valleys so that the hills might rise 

 still higher and the valleys appear deeper. To them are due many of the magnificent 

 backgrounds of ancient- trees against which our ancestral homes nestle. In the view 

 of Brathay Rocks, Windermere, planted with Scotch firs (111. Nos. 4 & 5), we have 

 one of those characteristic features upon which the old landscapists would have seized. 



After Brown came Repton, who, while he professed to be a follower of Brown, was 

 unquestionably far ahead of his master in intelligence and power to grasp the importance 

 of the office of design. In many instances he refused to destroy old gardens, and in 

 others he readjusted, in a consummate manner, the vagaries of his predecessor. Repton 

 learned what was consistent with, and even a necessary accompaniment of architecture. 

 Whereas the old garden designers favoured a formal scheme and the followers of Brown 

 an entirely natural garden, Repton recommended formality near the house, merging 

 into the natural, attaching the house by imperceptible gradations to the landscape. 

 He took a further step towards idealism by making, for each scheme, a number of 

 sketches shewing how the place would appear when the trees had attained a certain 

 growth, so that, while the results of his methods were not demonstrable to the same 

 extent as in the designs for a geometrical garden, which can be projected in planes by 

 perspective drawing, there was a degree of probability in his proposals. 



In his " Sketches and Hints," Repton enunciated ten principles, the outcome of his 

 experience, which shew the responsible position he took in respect to garden design and 

 estate improvement. They are of such general interest that we make no excuse for 

 printing them in extenso : 



Two 

 Opposed 

 Schools of 

 Garden 

 Design. 



Repton. 



