The Happy Garden 



the garden. Taking everything into consideration, 

 I am inclined to think it right in that particular 

 instance. It grows over against the rose and 

 honeysuckle archway that leads to the upper lawn, 

 and prevents a too abrupt end. Purple geranium 

 lives beneath it, and peers up into the branches, 

 so that the plants themselves have no rooted 

 objection to its presence. 



A border has to be designed, like a piece of 

 sculpture, to be seen right and convincing from every 

 point of view. The apple tree is, of course, years 

 older than the border, and its presence gives the 

 sense of accident which both relieves and accen- 

 tuates design. It is bizarre, but it falls into place 

 as duly as the borders harmonise with the slope 

 of the lawn, and the general lie of the land. In 

 a garden where there is no view to build up to, 

 each little vista leading on and on to the final pur- 

 view out over the wide world and the kingdoms 

 thereof, each nook and corner has to be made an 

 independent principality exactly defined and yet 

 fitting so nicely into its place that the whole is 

 an empire of inter-dependent states; an empire 

 whose government is seated in the brain of the 

 designer, a government conducted with no rules 

 or laws save the first principles of Nature, who, 

 in the commonwealth, is Lord High Chancellor, 



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