CHAPTER IV 



The Several Styles 



Attached to the geometrical style there is a greater de- 

 gree of originaHty, distinctness, and art, than to either of the • 

 others. It is the most easily defined, and therefore, prob- 

 ably, the least difficult to practice for a person at all familiar 

 with the simplest rules of architecture. It treat? a garden 

 solely and entirely as a work of art. And the forms of nature 

 which it impresses into its service are simply those which 

 have the closest affinity to its own characteristics and are 

 in fact most artificial. 



Doubtless the geometrical style is that which an architect 

 would most naturally prefer, for it Subordinates everything 

 to the house, and is a carrying out of the principles common 

 to both itself and architecture. A series of straight fines 

 joining one another at right angles, and of beds in which 

 some form of a circle or a parallelogram is always apparent 

 or which fit into any regular figure, are, as just before 

 remarked, the leading and most expressive features of this 

 style. Flights of steps, balustraded walls, terrace banks, 

 symmetry and correspondence of parts, circles, ovals, obloiig 

 and angular beds, exotic forms of vegetation, raised plat- 

 forms, and sunken panels, are some of the materials with 

 which it deals. 



To apply the style now under notice successfully, the 

 character of the house and the nature of the surrounding 

 land must justify its use, or be brought into accordance with 

 it. Grecian, Roman, or Itafian forms of architecture are 

 those in connection with which it can be most freely adopted. 

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