vi PREFACE. 



loose pages as fancies occurred. So have these errant 

 thoughts, jotted down in the broken leisure of a busy 

 life, grown solid unawares and expanded into a would- 

 be-serious contribution to garden-literature. 



Following upon the original lines of the Essay on the 

 For and Against of Modern Gardening, I became the 

 more confirmed as to the general rightness of the old 

 ways of applying Art, and of interpreting Nature the 

 more I studied old gardens and the point of view of 

 their makers ; until I now appear as advocate of old 

 types of design, which, I am persuaded, are more con- 

 sonant with the traditions of English life, and more 

 suitable to an English homestead than some now in 

 vogue. 



The old-fashioned garden, whatever its failings in 

 the eyes of the modern landscape-gardener (great is 

 the poverty of his . invention), represents one of the 

 pleasures of England, one of the charms of that quiet 

 beautiful life of bygone times that I, for one, would 

 fain see revived. And judged even as pieces of handi- 

 craft, apart from their poetic interest, these gardens are 

 worthy of careful study. They embody ideas of ancient 

 worth ; they evidence fine aims and heroic efforts ; they 

 exemplify traditions that are the net result of a long pro- 

 bation. Better still, they render into tangible shapes 

 old moods of mind that English landscape has inspired; 

 they testify to old devotion to the scenery of our native 

 land, and illustrate old attempts to idealise its pleasant 

 traits. 



Because the old gardens are what they are beau- 

 tiful yesterday, beautiful to-day, and beautiful always 



