CHAPTER in 



General Principles 



In proceeding to the various points which the designer of a 

 garden should endeavor to compass, as far as the nature of 

 the locaHty and other unavoidable conditions will allow, it 

 may be well to premise that any rules here furnished can 

 only be of general application. It is obviously impossible 

 to lay down principles which shall embrace every case, 

 and hence some who practice landscape gardening depend 

 mainly on their eye both in creating and judging of artificial 

 scenery. Doubtless, too, there is much in almost every gar- 

 den which requires it to be treated peculiarly, in some way 

 or other; the outline and surface of the plot, the position, 

 arrangement, and aspects of the house, and the requirements 

 of the owner, having something in them different from what 

 they are in any other place, and consequently needing a cor- 

 responding difference of treatment. And it is in the skillful 

 use and blending of these various objects and purposes that 

 the art of the landscape gardener consists. In reference, 

 therefore, to such circumstances, general rules would seem 

 at first sight to be of little use, or an actual disadvantage, 

 embarrassing and encumbering rather than aiding the prac- 

 titioner. 



But the advantage of fixed principles, even in the most 

 uncommon and complex examples^ will be overlooked only on 

 a cursory view. Closer observation will always show that, 

 although there may be cases in which no recognized law 

 could be carried out in its naked simplicity, yet some modi- 

 fication or mixture of one or more rules must be adopted in 

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