HISTORY & DESCRIPTION OF STYLES 37 



Garden Design in Various Countries 



i. ENGLAND 



ENGLAND cannot be said to have a national style 

 of gardening unless one adopts the charming 

 mixture of vegetables and flowers on either side 

 of the little flagged path that leads to cottage 

 homes all over the country. The love of garden- 

 ing is distinctly a national trait, which long free- 

 dom from internal warfare has given opportunity 

 to develop. Country people have manifested it 

 from time immemorial. Alongside the path, for 

 use and not for grandeur, runs a narrow band of 

 brilliant flowers interspersed with roses and lilac 

 bushes and anything else that the owner fancies, 

 and behind come vegetables in their rich tones of 

 green and bronze. The mass of colour and luxuri- 

 ant growth make a lovely picture, but the beauty 

 is in its colouring, and the grouping is mostly 

 nature's own. 



Turning to the wealthy classes who deliberately 

 lay out gardens for pleasure, the question of style 

 becomes a question of period. There is no more a 

 national type than there is an English costume, 

 beyond a uniform delight in luxuriant masses of 

 flower which is engrafted on to any type Italian 

 or Japanese whatever may be the prevailing 

 fashion, often to the type's confusion. The 

 description " a real old-fashioned English gar- 



