THE PRACTICE OF GARDEN DESIGN. 



Even this is not enough, for the perfectly equipped landscape architect will not only 

 have to deal with fellow- workmen, each trained to see and appreciate that which is good 

 in his schemes, but also with private clients or public bodies to whom his method of 

 presenting them by geometric projection on paper are more or less unintelligible, and his 

 technical terms an unknown language. Here is his greatest task, for the Writer's life- 

 long experience has proved to him that there is nothing more difficult for the lay mind 

 to grasp than the ultimate effect of a comprehensive scheme for the formation of a 

 garden. Indeed this could hardly be otherwise in this country, where our habit of 

 " muddling through " great projects is almost a national characteristic. More than once 

 have I been startlingly reminded of this when dealing with a client of Latin and particu- 

 larly French nationality or extraction, and have noted the greatly-increased appreciation 

 for and grasp of the ultimate result as a whole, and not in compartments and sections, 

 which such persons have shown, and this without for a moment losing sight of the 

 necessity for the careful consideration of minutiae. We have only to compare French and 

 English cities and to note the continuity of effort on the one hand and its utter absence 

 on the other to realize this. 



While the classic examples of garden design, of which this country has so many, are 

 undoubtedly incomparably beautiful, it is unfortunately true that the garden, as a 

 means of serious art expression, would never seem to have presented itself to the minds 

 of most people in this country. Notwithstanding the grandeur of the old Italian pleas- 

 aunces, the stately magnificence of the gardens of Paris and the more rural beauty of the 

 English domain, and, more incredible still, notwithstanding the inexhaustible theme which 

 the garden has formed for the painter, the poet and the novelist, the average Englishman 

 would seem to be unable to see anything more in it than a place where flowers or trees may be 

 grown for their intrinsic beauty alone, and quite apart from any collective effect which may 

 be obtained by the arrangement of the various factors composing the garden as a whole. 



Even if the isolated features have individual promise and interest, which must be 

 patent to everybody, and their disposition and relative functions in relation to one another 

 are carefully explained by precept and illustration, the ultimate effect is very rarely grasped 

 until the garden is an accomplished fact, and, even then, the introduction of some much- 

 prized piece of ornament or equipment which clashes with the whole, shows how little the 

 " motif " of the design has been realized or the work appreciated. 



The successful landscape architect must be able not only to build up in his mind's 

 eye the whole of the components of his scheme into one harmonious, comprehensive 

 whole, of which he is able to judge the effect before the commencement of the work, but 

 he must also possess the gift of being able to present his conception to the minds of 

 others so sympathetically that they too become fired with his enthusiasm for the ideal, 

 and grasp enough of the spirit of his work to realize some at least of its excellences. 



This is a difficult task, it is true, for between the yearnings of a mind embued with 

 a high ideal and the preconceptions of the ordinary mind which we call " fashion," there 

 is a gulf fixed which they who attempt to bridge over will earn for themselves the title 

 of " Idealist," a title which, though applied in opprobrium, is really a confession on the 

 part of the critic that he fails to grasp the practical connections of the scheme proposed, 

 and is not, by any means, a proof that they are unattainable or non-existent. 



So much for the training of the landscape architect, now for the ideals which should 

 influence his work at every turn. 



We have already spoken of the broad sympathy with the aims and aspirations of 

 others which should dominate all he does, and, in addition to this, he must mark his 

 work with his own art vision. This he will do by the masterly application of the three 

 factors which, for want of more expressive terms, I have designated realism, romanticism 

 and symbolism (or, should we say, of mysticism). 



Continuity 

 of effort. 



The garden 

 as a means 

 of serious 

 art 

 expression. 



Taste and 

 fashion. 



