The Italian Formal Garden 



toward different results. As an abstract and academic ques- 

 tion, controversy as to their relative merits is without signifi- 

 cance or reason. Such discussion has its place only where 



specific prob- 

 lems are pre- 

 sented for solu- 

 tion. It is, of 

 course, open 

 to question, 

 whether, upon 

 the site and 

 within the lim- 

 its of Mr. A.'s 

 property, or 

 with the sum 

 which Mr. B. 

 puts at the 

 landscape gar- 

 dener's dispo- 

 sal, or in the 

 climate and 

 with the partic- 

 ular surround- 

 ings of Mr. C.'s 

 estate, a formal 

 or a pictur- 

 esque treat- 

 ment will be 

 best. I hold no 

 brief for the Ital- 

 ian formal gar- 

 den as against 

 the park and 

 wild -wood. I 

 h a \' e simply 

 tried to set 

 forth the con- 

 ditions under which it came into being, the artistic principles 

 which controlled its design, and some of the methods and 

 devices which produced the results attained. Some of the 

 errors and defects of these methods I have suggested ; others 

 are patent to e\ery observer. 



PLAN OF THE VILLA MEDICI GARDENS 

 Rome 



50 



