VI MOUNTS 135 



graph.ia^ are exceedingly absurd. The purpose 

 of a garden — to make the most of flowers and 

 velvety turf — was forgotten. The dignity of the 

 older formal garden was lost in these intricate 

 designs, which only led to a violent reaction in 

 favour of what was considered to be nature un- 

 adorned. Of all the parterres the parterre a 

 r Anglaise was the least absurd, and the PVench- 

 men thought little of it. What is one to think 

 of a parterre laid out " with the mask-head of a 

 griffin having bats' wings formed by the sides of 

 grass-work, as the flourishes of the embroidery 

 form the nose, eyes, brows, moustaches, and 

 tuft upon the head of the mask " ? Much might 

 be done with simple parterres of grass and 

 flowers, but the elaborate system in fashion at 

 the beginning of the eighteenth century was a 

 pernicious abuse. It is significant that some of 

 the silliest of its features — such as the use of 

 coloured earths and broken tiles — have survived 

 in the practice of the landscape gardener. 



Grass-work as an artistic quantity can hardly 

 be said to exist in landscape gardening. It is 

 there considered simply as so much background 

 to be broken up with shrubs and pampas grass 

 and irregular beds ; not as a means of effect in 

 itself, to be handled as a question of values, 

 both in regard to colour and amount. Lawn- 

 tennis and croquet have stopped some of the 

 worst faults of the landscapist by necessitating a 

 clear space of level lawn, and this large expanse 



