12 THE FORMAL GARDEN IN ENGLAND i 



"Nature" must mean the earth itself and the 

 forces at work in the earth, and the waters of the 

 earth and sky, and the trees, flowers, and grass 

 which grow on the earth, no matter whether 

 planted by man or not. A clipped yew-tree is as 

 much a part of nature — that is, subject to natural 

 laws, as a forest oak ; but the landscapist, by 

 appealing to associations which surround the 

 personification of nature, holds up the clipped 

 yew - tree to obloquy as something against 

 nature. So far as that goes, it is no more 

 unnatural to clip a yew-tree than to cut grass. 

 Again, " nature " is said to prefer a curved line 

 to a straight, and it is thence inferred that all the 

 lines in a garden, and especially paths, should be 

 curved. Now as a matter of fact in nature — 

 that is, in the visible phenomena of the earth's 

 surface — there are no lines at all; "a line" is 

 simply an abstraction which conveniently ex- 

 presses the direction of a succession of objects 

 which may be either straight or curved. 

 " Nature " has nothing to do with either 

 straight lines or curved ; it is simply begging 

 the question to lay it down as an axiom that 

 curved lines are more " natural " than straight. 

 As a matter of fact, whatever " naturalness " 

 there may be about it applies quite as well to a 

 straight path and a plain expanse of grass ; and 

 it is open to us to say that the natural man 

 would probably prefer a straight path to a 

 zigzag, and that when his eye seeks wearily for 



