The Natural Style in Landscape Gardening 



may be closely compared to poetry and the infor- 

 mal form to prose. Each is a structural method of 

 composition — a form. Poetry is one literary form ; 

 prose is another. National or personal styles may 

 be expressed through either of these forms. 



Up to this point, therefore, and subject to a very 

 important addition later to be made, we may say 

 that the so-called natural style is really a funda- 

 mental garden form. It is a structural form char- 

 acterized by certain resemblances to the natural 

 landscape. These points of resemblance are some- 

 times quite arbitrarily chosen by the garden de- 

 signer, and sometimes quite artificially developed; 

 but it is always the logical aim of the artist to 

 discover and to follow the principles of composi- 

 tion followed by nature. 



This structural form is distinguished further, in 

 a purely negative manner, by contrast with the 

 formal garden form, which is symmetrical, bal- 

 anced, enclosed and determinate, whereas the in- 

 formal form is unsymmetrical, not obviously bal- 

 anced, not apparently enclosed and not marked by 

 visible boundaries. 



20 



