INTEODUOTION. xi 



store their treasures; nor through architects and engineers, 

 because their own work is different even in kind. 



What, then, is wanted for the future development of an art 

 which, far more than any other, may influence the beauty of the 

 country ; which may add so much to the simplest and healthi- 

 est home pleasures of its people, to its wealth in forest and 

 field, to the supplies of its markets with much that is essential 

 for crowded cities, and to the adornment of the table with all 

 that is delightful to the eye and taste ? The only direct way 

 onwards is through the trained and artistic gardener. We must 

 educate the young men, and in this way all has yet to be done. 

 Funereal Kensingtons and very one- sided Chiswicks will not help 

 much, though half the money buried in geometrical rubbish at 

 Kensington would, properly used, have given us a national garden 

 worthy of the country. The art of garden design is yet in a very 

 barbarous state, only a few monotonous notes are, as a rule, got out 

 of it, and we shall never know its true capabilities till there is a 

 school of young men trained for it from the beginning, and devoted to 

 it heart and soul. What they ought to know to make the country 

 and its homes more beautiful is outlined in the chapter on the 

 Pare Monceau. As no help need be expected from the State, 

 anything to be done must be by those more immediately concerned 

 — the horticulturists and landowners of the United Kingdom. 



We have now to deal with fruit-culture, market-gardening, 

 etc., in Paris and its environs. On these matters there were 

 prolonged discussions in the newspapers, but many readers and 

 disputants have been misled by confounding the comparative state 

 of horticulture in France and England with the real point at 

 issue — i.e., the superiority of the French in certain special and 

 most important branches of garden-culture. I have never 

 asserted, as has been assumed, that the French are our superiors 

 in general horticulture. We are far before them in horticulture, 

 agriculture, and rural affairs generally; but in certain very 

 important points of fruit and vegetable culture they are far in 

 advance of us. I am convinced, too, that more than one of their • 

 modes of culture will prove of great value to us. To avoid these 

 points, and utter commonplaces about our general superiority, 

 is to beg the question. Are we to ignore their good practices 

 because we happen to be more luxurious in our gardening establish- 



