io6 GARDEN-CRAFT. 



and the general surface of the ground shall be 

 characterised by smoothness and bareness (like 

 Nature !) Hence in the grounds of this period, house 

 and country 



" Wrapt all o'er in everlasting green 



Make one dull, vapid, smooth and tranquil scene. " 



There is to my mind no more significant testi- 

 mony to the attractiveness and lovableness of the 

 regular garden as opposed to the opened-out bar- 

 barism of the landscape-gardener's invention, than 

 Horace Walpole's lament over the old gardens at 

 Houghton,* which has the force of testimony wrung 

 from unwilling lips : 



" When I had drank tea I strolled into the garden. They told 

 me it was now called the ' pleasure- ground? What a dissonant idea 

 of pleasure ! Those groves, those alleys^ where I have passed so 

 many charming moments, are now stripped up, or overgrown ; many 

 fond paths I could not unravel, though with a very exact clue in my 

 memory. I met two gamekeepers and a thousand hares ! In the days 

 when all my soul was tuned to pleasure and vivacity, I hated Houghton 

 and its solitude ; yet I loved this garden; as now, with many regrets, 

 I love Houghton ; Houghton, I know not what to call it : a monu- 

 ment of grandeur or ruin ! " (Walpole's Letters.) 



" What a dissonant idea of pleasure/' this so- 

 called ' pleasure-ground of the landscape-gardener ! ' 

 " Those groves, those alleys where I have passed so 

 many charming moments, stripped up ! How I loved 

 this garden ! " Here is the biter bit, and it were to 

 be more than human not to smile ! 



* Houghton was built by Sir R. Walpole, between 1722 and 1738. 

 The garden was laid out in the stiff, formal manner by Eyre, " an 

 imitator of Bridgman," and contained 23 acres. The park contains 

 some fine old beeches. More than 1,000 cedars were blown down 

 here in February, 1860. 



