I THE FORMAL METHOD 15 



effects of wild nature on a small scale in a 

 garden is clearly absurd ; any one who loves 

 natural scenery will want the real thing ; he 

 will hardly be content to sit in his rockery 

 and suppose himself to be among the mountains. 

 And again, some loyalty to her methods might 

 have been expected of these enthusiasts tor 

 nature. It is surely flying in the face of nature 

 to fill the garden with tropical plants, as we 

 are urged to do by the writers on Landscape 

 Gardening, ignoring the entire difference of 

 climate, and the fact that a colour which may 

 look superb in the midst of other strong colours, 

 will look gaudy and vulgar amongst our sober 

 tints, and that a leaf like that of the yucca, 

 which may be all very well in its own 

 country, is out of scale and character amidst the 

 modest foliage of English trees. The formal 

 gardener is, by his priiiciples, entitled to do what 

 he likes with nature, but the landscapist gets 

 involved in all sorts of contradictions. He 

 " copies nature's graceful touch," but under 

 totally different conditions to the original ; so 

 far, therefore, from being loyal to nature, he 

 is engaged in a perpetual struggle to prove her 

 an ass. When we find him talking of '' quite 

 second-rate types of vegetation " (Mr. Robin- 

 son), and finding fault with nature for having 

 put a running stream like the Derwent among 

 rocks instead of " a more temperate river " 

 (Wheatly), we begin to suspect that his " truth " 



