PREFACE TO THE AMERICAN EDITION 



When it was first proposed that I undertake the American 

 revision of this work I accepted the opportunity with high 

 anticipations. Kemp's Landscape Gardening was one of the 

 first books on the subject I had ever read, and one of the 

 most delightful. I had used it for years as a reference book 

 in my classes. I expected that the work of revision would be 

 easy and entertaining. 



So far as the simplicity of the task was concerned T was 

 soon better informed. Though I have not ceased to enjoy 

 the work, I have found it a much greater task than I had 

 supposed. On hundreds of pages it has been almost impos- 

 sible to separate the gist of good advice from the detail of 

 old English practice in which it was imbedded. Oftener than 

 I had expected I found myself in disagreement with the 

 recommendations of the author. In such cases it became 

 very difficult to decide whether the author's methods had 

 been outgrown in the general improvement of landscape 

 gardening since his day, whether his methods were simply 

 unfashionable at this moment in America, or whether it was 

 merely a difference of opinion between author and reviser. 

 In cases of the first kind I have not hesitated to eliminate 

 outgrown methods and to substitute the rules of more modern 

 practice. In those of the second kind, where merely a chang- 

 ing fashion is involved, I have usually retained the author's 

 views, adding some note of present American ideas. In cases 

 of the third kind, where there appeared to be only a difference 

 of opinion, it is hardly necessary to say that I have allowed 



