CHAPTER VI11 



VIEWS AND VISTAS 



Many objects, in themselves prosaic, give pleasure when 

 shown in the landscape as part of a view. 



ENGROSSED in the working details of a garden, and giving 

 close and continued attention to the individual plants 

 and flowers, one is apt to become blind, if not to the 

 charm of the landscape, at least to its possibilities. The 

 coming of a visitor not enamoured of this or that plant 

 may be the means of opening the eyes of the gardener 

 to neglected opportunities and of inducing him to make 

 the most of them. It is so much easier to become a 

 skilled plant-grower than a successful gardener, and the 

 one is not necessarily the counterpart of the other. To 

 be learned in the art of growing prize-winning plants 

 does not, in itself, qualify for successful garden-making- 

 It is equally true that one cannot count one's gardening 

 good unless his plants are well grown, but for the moment 

 this point of view does not concern us. Too many of 

 us, I think, are inclined to regard the garden as a place 

 for the cultivation of plants and trees and flowers ; 

 entertaining and recreative though this may be, it 

 scarcely interprets the true spirit of gardening, which 



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