I THE FORMAL METHOD 9 



sponge at once. He admits in his first chapter 

 that landscape gardening can have no set of 

 fixed principles. He says generally that we are 

 not to copy nature, but "to adapt and garner 

 her beauties." Yet his advice as to treatment 

 of details is point-blank copy. " The lawn of 

 our garden " should present the appearance of a 

 "grassy glade in a wood," appear, in short, to 

 be exactly what it is not. For this is another of 

 the objects of the landscape gardener ; his aim 

 is not to show things as they are, but as they 

 are not. His first ambition is to make his 

 interference with nature look "natural-like"; 

 his second, to produce a false impression on the 

 spectator and make him think the grounds to 

 be twice as big as they are. *' Bridges may be 

 contrived to excite the impression of length." 

 *' The removal of some (trees) in particular 

 situations, with a coincident lowering of the 

 bank, will give an effect of lengthening the 

 water area." So in regard to trees, "a hill is 

 made to appear higher if its summit be planted." 

 Or again, " an enclosure pure and simple, even 

 though it be of leaves and not a brick wall, 

 gives a shut-in and cramped feeling which need- 

 lessly militates against expressions of beauty and 

 expanse that may be deftly gained from outside 

 the boundary lines," — that is, by deftly cutting 

 holes in the line of trees we lead people to 

 suppose that our neighbour's estate belongs to 

 us. Hitherto no mention has been made of 



