I THE FORMAL METHOD 17 



fiascoes in the Italian style as the Crystal 

 Palace Gardens and the basin at the head of 

 the Serpentine, confuse these with the old 

 English garden in one wholesale condemnation 

 of the formal style. Against the introduction 

 of the formal Italian garden of the sixteenth 

 century into England there is a very great deal 

 to be said. Such a garden properly carried 

 out would be immensely costly, unless the 

 balustrades and ornaments were made in com- 

 position, which is sure to come to pieces in a 

 very few years, and in any case never colours 

 (the case, by the way, with several of the most 

 famous Italian gardens). Moreover, our climate 

 and the quality of light in England make it 

 impossible to obtain the effect which is actually 

 attained in the great Italian gardens, such as 

 those at Tivoli. The older English garden, as 

 I shall show later, was by no means a direct copy 

 of the Italian ; and as to the matter of space, it 

 is a mere assumption to lay it down that the 

 formal style in England requires a great expanse 

 of ground to be seen to perfection. This 

 was necessary, no doubt, in the old French 

 garden, but not in the English. Some of the 

 best examples are on a comparatively small 

 scale. The gardens at Haddon Hall are in 

 three stages — the two top terraces only measure 

 about 70 paces by 18 wide apiece, and the 

 lower garden is only about 40 paces -square. 

 The beautiful old garden at Brickwall, in 



