112 GARDENS OF THE PLAINS DELHI 



and almost lost its form. Everywhere winding 

 roads driven through the old garden have cut 

 up and completely spoilt the beauty of the original 

 design. Even the approach has been altered 

 to a carriage drive, through a low insignificant 

 gate, set in a corner of the grounds ; and the fine 

 old entrance with its lovely tiles is hardly ever 

 seen. 



The gardens were obviously " improved " 

 when, many years ago, they became Government 

 or city property improved after the then pre- 

 vailing English landscape fashion. Putting the 

 whole question of design or want of it aside 

 for the moment, as well as that of climate, this 

 style of gardening, good as it was sometimes for 

 large parks and sheets of water, breaks down at 

 the garden, even when it is a public one. All 

 good garden-designers, whether English, Italian, 

 Indian, or Japanese, have recognised one simple 

 truth to enjoy a garden one must walk. This 

 was a fact the European landscape gardeners 

 never seemed to grasp. The broad masses of a 

 large English park, the stretches of autumn 

 woodland, the banks of gay flowering shrubs, 

 the cowslip meadows, the soft mist of bluebells 

 under the trees, give pleasure even in a rapid 



