12 



Gardens for Small Country Houses. 



FIG. 13. — POOL IN WATER GARDEN. 



no less to design, 

 and the more so 

 because it seems 

 to have come 

 about so naturally. 

 In this connection 

 one cannot agree 

 with Emerson, 

 whose pronounce- 

 ments on matters 

 esthetic must 

 always be ap- 

 proached with 

 some suspicion. 

 " Our arts," he 

 says, " are happy 

 hits. We are like 

 the musician on 

 the lake, whose 

 melody is sweeter 

 than he knows." 

 This would serve 



well as a polite apologia for the effect of accidental charm which can bear no close 

 examination, but is misleading nonsense when considered. Whatever may be the 



merits of impres- 

 sionism in paint- 

 ing, post or other- 

 wise, it is a snare 

 in architecture and 

 in the daughter 

 art of garden 

 design. The truth 

 is to be sought 

 rather in the 

 cogent phrases of 

 Mr. Reginald 

 Blomfield, when 

 he said " There is 

 no such thing as 

 impressionism i n 

 architecture. Our 

 art does not allow 

 us to leave our 

 conception 

 sketched out. The 

 idea must be 

 thought out to the 

 uttermost. The 

 incomplete phrase, 



MG. 14.— woodgate: a lily pond. 



m our case, is no 



