The Happy Garden 



had been devising a means by which an Alpine 

 garden could be introduced without too violently 

 offending Nature, for there is not a stone within 

 several miles. 



An unnatural and ungeological fissure in the 

 ground might, in the order of things, reveal a 

 sudden outcrop of stone, in which to grow sedum 

 and sun - rose, and saxifrage. And this with a 

 little persuasion the unnatural fissure did. 



At the end by the wall the roses were cut back, 

 and the ground was dug out and away on either 

 side to give slopes facing north and south. It was 

 roughly planned and left to the old gardener, who, 

 of course, did it all wrong. His notion was that 

 of a rockery, which is a very different thing from 

 a rock-garden. He dug his slopes carefully, and 

 laid his stones here and there in the mould in such 

 a way that they served no purpose at all. Now, 

 in building a rock-garden, even where the introduc- 

 tion of rocks is in flat contradiction to Nature, the 

 aim is, or should be, to build so that the rocks 

 support the earth and pockets are left for the 

 plants. The easiest construction is to build a 

 rough winding path and steps down the slope, and 

 on either side of that to erect cliffs in miniature, 

 in the crannies and crevices of which the earth 

 will seem to have been left. . . . Strictly speak- 



192 



