OF WILD GARDENS 83 



The longing for calm retreat in unconventional 

 surroundings was not unknown in other times. It 

 is betrayed by the wood left to Nature beyond 

 the ordered formality of the garden of the Roman 

 villa, the " wilderness " belonging to many an old 

 English home. Above all, we find the wild gar- 

 den foreshadowed in the six acres of heath or 

 desert, " framed, as much as may be, to a natural 

 wilderness," which Francis Bacon liked well to 

 have in the going forth of his princely garden. 

 Yet the image of the wild garden set forth in 

 such fair colours left no mark upon the mind 

 of even the most ardent disciple of Nature, until 

 the " fay re idea " was presented as an inspira- 

 tion.* It was the re-birth in England of a beau- 

 tiful ideal ; and that ideal, though many years 

 have passed since it was first evolved, is still a 

 living force. 



Naturally, many mistakes have been made as 

 to the true meaning of a wild garden, which is 

 somewhat of a contradiction of terms; and un- 

 considered attempts at wild gardening have now 

 and then ended in nothing less than disaster. For 

 what it was never intended to mean is the turning 

 of the fair precincts of an ordered garden into 

 an unrestrained wilderness of w r eeds. 



Nevertheless, within the boundaries of almost 

 every country house, large or small, there is to 

 be found some piece of rough ground beyond the 

 pale of the garden itself, but bordering upon it 

 some hedgerow or ditch or trickling stream, some 

 belt of thin coppice, or it may even be some dis- 

 * "The Wild Garden." By W. Robinson, F.L.S. 



