The Happy Garden 



what to look for. What I want you to see first of 

 all is that all this has not been made, but has 

 happened. It has grown ! . . . Show me your 

 garden, and I will tell you what you are, and if you 

 like me, you are bound to like my garden ; for 

 gardening, like every other art, is an implacable 

 mirror of the soul, and as yet there is no curtain of 

 false criticism between it and you. 



Do you know Mr. Robinson ? There is his book, 

 " The English Flower Garden," one of the most 

 revolutionary works in the English language. Quite 

 respectable, I assure you. Real, healthy revolu- 

 tions always are perfectly respectable ; perfectly 

 normal, perfectly sober, and they happen slowly 

 and painlessly — except to the people who were 

 making money out of the old order. 



Now, that old order was a matter of bedding- 

 out, mosaics, plaster-work ; niggling, tiresome re- 

 production of old patterns, without regard to soil, 

 position, surrounding country, or even common 

 sense : all the vices of French gardening without 

 its charm or quality. It reached its climax, I 

 believe, when the Crystal Palace was laid out long 

 ago. Half-a-dozen different flowers were enough 

 for that sort of work, but they were not enough for 

 Mr. Robinson. He had discovered the cottage 

 garden, where, if there was no design, there were 



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