ROCK, WALL AND BOG GARDENS. 



interfere would be the greatest presumption, as, for instance, in a case in the English 

 Lake District in which the writer was consulted, where a mountain torrent fell in a 

 succession of cataracts down a deep and precipitous gorge, the sides of which consisted 

 of cliffs of virgin rock clothed in a wild profusion of native ferns and other shade-loving 

 plants. In such cases, all that can be done is to conserve with jealous care that which 

 exists and guard it from the intrusion of artificially incompatible features or the 

 encroachment of commonplace utilitaria ; but such instances are rare indeed and, in the 

 vast majority of cases, Nature is not found at her best on the site of a new garden, 

 which is oftener reclaimed from agricultural uses, which, apart from the hedgerows, have 

 little in common with her. 



Here much may be done to aid her work, and thus co-partnership with Nature at 

 her best must give to this form of garden-making a great and peculiar fascination for 

 those who love her and are filled with a sympathetic understanding of her excellences. 

 Prim parterres, set in smooth green lawns, balustraded terraces giving base and con- 

 tinuity to the architectural features, sculptured fountains throwing sparkling water from 

 basin to basin and water-lily tanks with unruffled surface mirroring the light of heaven, 

 we must have if our garden is to be complete ; but these alone can never satisfy the 

 all-round garden lover. He longs also for the free and the wild, for a seclusion where 

 flowers and plants may grow in rank luxuriance and riot, or where the mossy boulders 

 lie piled in romantic abandon, or combine to form a cool grotto overgrown with ferns, 

 or rich brown bog or bubbling spring lies all but concealed in the profuse growth it has 

 engendered. The spirit which filled John Gerard the Surgeon in the sixteenth century 

 with a love for the solace of the quiet country ways, and caused Gilbert White, a 

 hundred years ago, to write of the two rocky hollow lanes of Selborne which delight the 

 naturalist " with their various botany," still lives among us and is ever growing. The 

 chequered sunlight, filtering down through overarching foliage and covering the green 

 carpet with a scintillating filigree pattern deep down along the grassy way between tall 

 hedges of hazel and dogwood, whose supremacy is disputed by clambering tangles of 

 wild clematis, dog rose and sweetest-scented honeysuckle, of deep, dark mysterious shade 

 under over-hanging rocks or masses of fern or brake, must always make a strong appeal 

 to all who love a garden and who have learnt to understand something of Nature's 

 perfection and to love her free profusion. 



Site of the From the very nature of the wild garden it follows that it will usually be placed either 



m "* out of sight of the house or at some distance from it in order that there may be no 



gar en. clashing between the natural and the artificial. In most instances, too, it will occupy a 



secluded dell, especially where a bog garden or water in some form is a feature of its 



decoration, or where ferns, mosses and lichens are to grow in rich profusion. In other 



instances, it will occupy an open hillside, especially where it takes the form of an Alpine 



garden, or again the necessity for protecting a steep bank by the side of a path may 



suggest its treatment with rockwork or its conversion into a wall garden. 



In several instances in the Author's practice, especially when called in to remodel 

 old gardens, he has found a natural stream flowing through the grounds which has been 

 built in between hideous walls or even enclosed in a culvert. A notable case of this 

 kind occurred in Pittencrieff Glen, at Dunfermline, presented to the city by Mr. Andrew 

 Carnegie, which was all the more remarkable as natural rock abounded in the bottom 

 and sides of the stream and required little more than uncovering and planting to make 

 a most charming feature. Another instance, already referred to, occurred at Ballimore, in 

 Argyleshire, and how much can be done in a very short time is shown in the illustration 

 (111. No. 261), from which it would be difficult to imagine that rather over a year 

 before the photograph was taken the stream ran between stone walls, and all the 

 romantically waterworn rocks have been planted so luxuriantly in that period of time. 



202 



