2 THE FORMAL GARDEN IN ENGLAND , 



position of the landscape gardener in real fact. 

 There is some affectation in his treatises ot 

 recognising the relationship between the two, 

 but his actual practice shows that this admission 

 is only borrowed from the formal school to 

 save appearances, and is out of court in a 

 method which systematically dispenses with 

 any kind of system whatever. 



The formal treatment of gardens ought, 

 perhaps, to be called the architectural treatment 

 of gardens, for it consists in the extension of the 

 principles of design which govern the house to 

 the grounds which surround it. Architects are 

 often abused for ignoring the surroundings of 

 their buildings in towns, and under conditions 

 which make it impossible for them to do other- 

 wise ; but if the reproach has force, and it 

 certainly has, it applies with greater justice to 

 those who control both the house and its sur- 

 roundings, and yet deliberately set the two at 

 variance. The object of formal gardening is to 

 bring the two into harmony, to make the house 

 grow out of its surroundings, and to prevent its 

 being an excrescence on the face of nature. The 

 building cannot resemble anything in nature, 

 unless you are content with a mud -hut and 

 cover it with grass. Architecture in any shape 

 has certain definite characteristics which it 

 cannot get rid of ; but, on the other hand, you 

 can lay out the grounds, and alter the levels, 

 apd plant hedges and trees exactly as you 



