Part III. GEOMETRICAL AND BORDER GARDEN. 373 



the geometrical garden has over ordinary beds and borders, 

 which derive their effect from the colours of their flowers. 



Dependent as it is for its beauty on form and colour, 

 the geometrical garden admits no rock-work, or capricious 

 and irregular conceits clashing with the general design ; 

 and while vases, nor statues, are consistent and even de- 

 sirable parts of it, they must not be introduced without 

 reason, nor stand on the turf without a base (as I have before 

 observed, p. 346). They should form part of the general 

 design. Above all they should not rise from a mass of rock- 

 work; and the fountain, a very suitable feature in such a 

 garden, must never be surrounded by rock-work, or by rough 

 stones. These may be tolerated in the less formal one ; where 

 large flints and other stones often form good edgings for beds, 

 and may even be covered with ivy ; and where the fountain 

 may be surrounded by them or by flowers placed out in 

 pots. 



Greometrical beds may be better suited to a large than to a 

 small garden ; and in all cases there should be beyond the 

 geometrical, a less formal border, garden ; the former being, 

 if I may so call it, an appurtenance to the house, and a part 

 of the ornamental plateau on which it stands ; but no 

 attempt should be made to combine the patterns of the 

 geometrical, with the beds or borders of the outer informal, 

 garden ; and such patterns are especially out of place in the 

 neighbourhood of bushes and winding walks. There should 

 be a gradation from the geometrical to the border garden, 

 if possible by one of less formal character. The transition 

 should not be abrupt. It is however a mistake to suppose 

 that when a garden is small no portion of it should be 

 laid out in geometrical patterns ; and I have seen one with a 

 terrace walk, and the usual beds (very similar to that in 

 Plate VII. fig. 1) not a hundred feet square, which when 

 bright with flowers, gave the impression of possessing far 



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