i6 GARDENS IN THE MAKING 



with existing conditions. To many people simplicity 

 spells poverty, and harmony is nothing so beautiful 

 as contrast. Hence come those paths that are curved 

 eternally until your eye longs for a straight line, 

 feature crowded upon feature until each depreciates 

 its fellow, and that planting which is of so foreign 

 and imported a nature that it appears a stranger 

 upon the hillside rather than a product of its own 

 soil. But experience and good taste will dictate 

 quite other methods. The garden should be a 

 concentration of the beauty of the locality. Its 

 native foliage, trees, even its own levels, — with 

 proper correction, — should be retained as far as 

 possible ; other planting of a nature resembling that 

 in the neighbourhood should be introduced to protect 

 the walks and supplement the trees that are already 

 grown ; every view and distant prospect should be 

 enhanced by the careful disposition of terrace and 

 walk, of avenue and thick plantation. The garden 

 should exhibit a superabundant wealth amid the 

 richness of the countryside ; it should shrink from 

 many barren gravel paths, but should love a 

 multitude of turf and paved walks ; its trees should 

 shun an unnatural isolation, but should glory in 



