52 GARDENS PAST AND PRESENT 



in that direction earned for him at length the nick- 

 name of Lily Wilson. In other ways as well the 

 most was made of the Wey bridge garden. In 

 course of time active business was relinquished, and 

 in 1878 Mr Wilson bought Oakwood, a hillside 

 farm of about sixty acres, consisting of woodland 

 with two-thirds of pasture and arable fields, situated 

 at Wisley, about six miles from his own home at 

 Weybridge, with the intention of converting it into 

 a garden after his own liking. In his own words : 

 " My business work having been mixed up with 

 many experiments and inventions, this place gave 

 just what I wanted a grand new field and plenty 

 of work. The wood had not been disturbed for 

 many hundreds of years, during which time oak 

 leaves and bracken decaying had made a great 

 depth of vegetable soil. This, with the light loam 

 of the hill, gave great capabilities." At first, and 

 naturally enough, the new garden presented many 

 difficulties, and did not at once rush into perfection. 

 Wild gardening, which to a great extent was Mr 

 Wilson's aim, was in its infancy in those days, 

 and many were the experts who were inclined to 

 shake their heads over the experiment. Before 

 many years had passed, the verdict was entirely 

 favourable, for surely nothing succeeds like suc- 

 cess. By that time the Oakwood garden had be- 

 come * ' a place where plants from all parts of the 

 world grow wild." 



It would be impossible now to trace the steps 

 by which this great purpose was accomplished. 

 There were no radical changes made in haste, but 

 a clearing here beneath the oaks was chosen for 



