HISTORICAL AND COMPARATIVE. 55 



rust requires. Yet the Earth is richer and mankind 

 happier for the Dutch garden ! 



And, as though out of compassion for the 

 Dutchman's difficulties, kind Nature has put into his 

 hands the bulb, as a means whereby he may attain 

 the maximum of gaudy colour within the minimum 

 of space. Given a few square yards of rescued earth 

 and sufficient manure, and what cannot the neat- 

 handed, frugal-minded, microscopic-eyed Dutchman 

 do in the way of concentrated design with his bulbs, 

 his clipt shrubs, his trim beds, his trickles of water, 

 and strips of grass and gravel ! And should all other 

 resources fail he has still his pounded brick-dust, 

 his yellow sand, his chips of ores and spars and 

 green glass, which, though they may serve only 

 remotely to suggest Nature, will at all events carry 

 your mind off to the gay gardens of precious stones 

 of fairy-land literature ! 



Indeed, once embarked upon his style of piquancy- 

 at-any-price, and it is hard to see where the Dutch 

 gardener need stop ! In this sophisticated trifling 

 this lapidary's mosaic this pastry-cook's decora- 

 tion this child's puzzle of coloured earth, substi- 

 tuted for coloured living flowers he pushes Art 

 farther than the plain Englishman approves. It is, 

 however, only one step farther than ordinary with him. 

 All his dealings with Nature are of this abstract sort : 

 his details are clever, and he is ingenious, if not 

 imaginative, in his wholes. Still, I repeat, the Earth 

 is richer, and mankind happier for the Dutch garden. 

 There is an obvious excuse for its over-fancifulness 



