THE TECHNICS OF GARDENING. 151 



and fittest first, in jagged outlines, leading the way, 

 but not out of touch with the rest. And, since 

 the modern landscape-gardener is nothing if not a 

 naturalist, this is why one cannot see the consistency 

 of so fine a master as Mr. Marnock, when he dots his 

 lawns over with straggling specimens. (See the 

 model garden, by Mr. Marnock in " The English 

 Flower-Garden," p. xxi., described thus " Here 

 the foreground is a sloping lawn; the flowers are 

 mostly arranged near the kitchen garden, partly 

 shown to right ; the hardy ones grouped and scat- 

 tered in various positions near, or within good view of, 

 the one bold walk which sweeps round the ground.") 



A garden is ground knit up artistically ; ground 

 which has been the field of artistic enterprise ; 

 ground which expresses the feeling of beauty and 

 which absorbs qualities which man has discovered in 

 the woodland world. And the qualities in Nature 

 which may well find room in a garden are peace, 

 variety, animation. A good sweep of lawn is a peaceful 

 object, but see that the view is not impeded with 

 the modern's sprawling pell-mell beds. And in the 

 anxiety to make the most of your ground, do not 

 spoil a distant prospect. Remember, too, that a 

 lawn requires a good depth of soil, or it will look 

 parched in the hot weather. 



And since a lawn is so delightful a thing, beware 

 lest your admiration of it lead you to swamp your 

 whole ground with grass even to carrying it up to 

 the house itself. " Nothing is more a child of Art 

 than a garden," says, Sir Walter, and he was 



