126 GARDENS: THEIR FORM AND DESIGN 



down to the water's edge, without brushwood, but with 

 great sheets of flowers to lend colour. 



Here should be hellebores and the wild fritillary, if only 

 it would be friendly and grow as it does at Oxford. 

 Bulbs of all sorts should succeed each other snowdrops, 

 crocuses, winter aconite, Solomon's seal, daffodils but 

 planted by the ten thousand, not in a few hundreds, 

 when they are really hardly noticed. Each little grass glade 

 should have its own succession of flowers as close to the 

 water's edge as possible. Primroses and bluebells, too, 

 must not be forgotten, followed later by foxgloves and 

 verbascum. The grouping should be irregular and bold, 

 for without this labour is in vain. 



Perhaps an island occurs in the lake, or maybe one has 

 been artificially made. If so, it will look best when it is 

 well raised above the water and appears to be higher than 

 the banks that are round the lake. The contour-line of 

 the island should not follow the shore-line closely, but 

 should have irregularities of height and indentations. As 

 a rule, it does not make a good picture to have the island 

 in the middle of the lake. Should this occur, it is possible 

 by means of some small optical delusion to alter this and 

 deceive the eye of the spectator. For instance, trees such 

 as alders can be planted upon it to overhang the water 

 and thus make it appear closer to the mainland upon that 

 side. Or floating iris- rafts can be moored to it, or reeds 

 planted in the water to help extend its contour-line. 



It is not in many gardens that we are fortunate enough 

 to find a lake or the possibility of making one, but a very 

 charming water garden can sometimes be formed in a 

 sloping grass glade, where water is carried in a natural 

 way by means of an open cement drain led in irregular 

 curves and bends to be caught in basins and pools of 

 various shapes and sizes. Thus a small streamlet may be 

 made to look like pearls threaded on a string. Stepping- 



