Untrofcuction 5 



circumstances that nature, unassisted, is not likely 

 to bring about. " 



It is also time that we in these modern days learn that 

 we have not been the first to develop a genuine and 

 sound instinct in landscape gardening. The Chinese 

 had it highly developed in their own peculiar style 

 2600 B.C., and of the Japanese the same may be said, 

 although their ideas are different and not so old, and in 

 a way not so original, having been derived from China 

 and then transfused with the characteristic Japanese 

 genius. They have that quality that persistently re- 

 minds one in a remote and miniature way of the best 

 park designs of all countries. 



The Hanging Gardens of Nebuchadnezzar are an- 

 other instance of this ancient love of nature. They 

 have been identified by explorers and found to be of 

 such great size, as shown by their foundations, that 

 they might readily support a replica of the natural hill 

 or mountain which the monarch is said to have had 

 fashioned at the whim of a homesick favourite .who he 

 had brought from Iran. Also in the garden at Damas- 

 cus to-day we find a type of landscape gardening full of 

 natural grace and charm built on good artistic lines of 

 their kind, and which, in accordance with the unchange- 

 able habit of the East, doubtless differs little from that 

 of the Garden of Eden. 



The primitive ideas of the savage also have a certain 

 element of natural charm and evince fundamental con- 

 ceptions of a sort of landscape gardening. John La 



