GEORGE MILNER 299 



certainly been most carefully and adroitly planned, and it had 

 every advantage in the soft climate of the west of England. The 

 various lawns were divided by thick shrubberies, so that you 

 wandered on from one to the other, and always came on some- 

 thing new. In front of these shrubberies was a large margin of 

 flower-border, gay with the most effective plants and annuals. At 

 the corner of the lawn a standard Magnolia grandiflora of great 

 size held up its chalked blossoms ; at another a tulip-tree was laden 

 with hundreds of yellow flowers. Here a magnificent Salisburia 

 mocked the foliage of the maiden-hair; and here an old cedar 

 swept the grass with its large pendant branches. But the main 

 breadth of each lawn was never destroyed, and past them you 

 might see the reaches of a river, now in one aspect and now in 

 another. Each view was different, and each was a fresh enjoyment 

 and surprise. 



A few years ago, and I revisited the place j the ' improver ' had 

 been at work, and had been good enough to open up the view. 

 Shrubberies had disappeared, and lawns had been thrown together. 

 The pretty peeps among the trees were gone, the long vistas had 

 become open spaces, and you saw at a glance all that there was to 

 be seen. Of course the herbaceous borders, which once contained 

 numberless rare and interesting plants, had disappeared, and the 

 lawn in front of the house was cut up into little beds of red pelar- 

 goniums, yellow calceolarias, and the rest. The English Flower- 

 Garden. 



IT is said that a garden should always be considered simply and GEORGE 

 wholly as a work of art, and should not be made to look like MILNER. 

 Nature. That is true enough. Nothing, indeed, can be in worse 

 taste than the landscape-gardener's imitations of Nature. But 

 there is another plan. If your garden be large enough you can 

 let Nature have her own way in certain parts of it. This takes 

 time, but the result is eminently delightful. For the most part 

 o u have only to stand aside and watch. If anything at all be 

 done it should only be a little judicious pruning accomplished 



