IN PRAISE OF BOTH. 211 



Kent and Brown against Art in a garden, and to see, 

 on the other hand, why Bacon and the Early School 

 of gardeners loved Nature in the wild state no less 

 than in a garden. It dispels any lingering hesitation 

 we may have as to the amount of Art a garden may 

 receive in defiance of Dryasdust " codes of taste." 

 It explains what your artist-gardener friend meant 

 when he said that he had as much sympathy with, 

 and felt as much interest in, the moving drama of 

 Nature going on on this as on that side of his garden- 

 hedge, and how he could pass from the rough theme 

 outside to the ordered music inside, from the uncer- 

 tain windings in the coppice-glade to the pleached 

 alley of the garden, without sense of disparagement 

 to the one or the other. It explains why it is that 

 nothing in Nature goes unobserved of him ; how 

 you shall call to see him and hunt the garden over, 

 and at last find him idling along the bridle-path in 

 the plantation, his fist full of flowers, his mind set 

 on Nature's affairs, his ear in such unison with local 

 sounds that he shall tell you the dominant tone of 

 the wind in the tree-tops. Or he is in the covert's 

 tangle enjoying 



" Simple Nature's breathing life," 



surprising the thorn veiled in blossom, revelling in 

 the wealth of boundless life there, in the variety of 

 plant-form, the palpitating lights, the melody of 

 nesting birds, the common joy and sweet assurance 

 of things. 



" Society is all but rude 

 To this delicious solitude." 



