I THE FORMAL METHOD 7 



scape artists do. It is still his (the landscape 

 gardener's) privilege to make ever-changing 

 pictures out of nature's own material — sky and 

 trees, water and flowers and grass. If he would 

 not prefer this to painting in pigments, he has 

 no business to be a landscape gardener. The 

 aim should be never to rest till the garden is a 

 reflex of nature in her fairest moods." For 

 instance, because nature is assumed never to show 

 straight lines, all paths are to be made crooked, 

 and presumably Mr. Robinson's dictum that 

 '' walks should be concealed as much as possible, 

 and reduced to the most modest dimensions" is 

 based on the state of a virgin forest ; the 

 argument perhaps running thus, because in a 

 virgin forest there are no paths at all, let us 

 in our acre and a half of garden make as little 

 of the paths as possible. Deception is a prim- 

 ary object of the landscape garciener. Thus to 

 get variety, and to deceive the eye into sup- 

 posing that the garden is larger than it is, the 

 paths are to wind about in all directions, and 

 the lawns are not to be left in broad expanse, 

 but dotted about with pampas grasses, foreign 

 shrubs, or anything else that will break up the 

 surface. As was said by a witty Frenchman, 

 " Rien n'est plus facile que de dessiner un pare 

 anglais ; on n'a qu'a enivrer son jardinier, et a 

 suivre son trace." 



Mr. Milner, a recent writer on landscape 

 gardening, has the courage to define what he 



