I THE FORMAL METHOD 13 



the rest of some quiet breadth of lawn and the 

 welcome finality of a wall or hedgerow, he is 

 *' naturally " bored by the land-scapist with his 

 curves and his clumps. 



The word '' natural " can only mean some- 

 thing belonging to nature, or something done in 

 accordance with nature's laws, as, for instance, 

 planting a tree with its roots underground in- 

 stead of upside down ; but when the landscapist 

 uses the word " natural," as when he calls his 

 system a "purely artistic and natural " style, he 

 means by it a style which imitates the visible 

 results of natural causes, as, for instance, the 

 copy of a piece of natural rock in a rockery. 

 Now there is nothing more natural, properly 

 speaking, about this than there is in the forma- 

 tion of a grass bank in the shape of a horse-shoe. 

 In fact, this vaunted naturalness of landscape 

 gardening is a sham ; instead of leaving nature 

 alone, the landscapist is always struggling to 

 make nature lend itself to his deceptions. Mr. 

 Milner gives unconsciously two instances of 

 this. In a chapter on "Public Parks and 

 Cemeteries" he tells us how, at Preston, a 

 railway embankment, which runs across the 

 public park, was made to look quite natural 

 by " planting and irregular lines of walk and 

 turf. Rockwork even has been introduced 

 to foster the idea that the towering mass is 

 only one part of an old cliff." And at Glossop 

 the landscape gardener was still more heroic. 



