72 GARDENS IN THE MAKING 



dividing walls or hedges. Such grandiose schemes 

 are, however, for the few, and in the majority of 

 both large and small gardens it will be found that 

 the division into self-contained and sheltered areas 

 provides the greatest charm, variety, and interest, 

 besides allowing the opportunity for an unlimited 

 variation in the style of gardening and in the natural 

 and artificial features employed. ■ The chief need of 

 the garden — shelter, and its most elusive charm — 

 mystery, alike demand the dividing lines of wall 

 or hedge to separate its lawns and walks, and its 

 many sites for the concourse of leaf and flower. 



The most important matter in building a garden 

 wall is to steer safely between two equally undesir- 

 able extremes. The material used must not be of 

 so unyielding a nature that it repels the impress 

 of time and weather, nor should it, on the other 

 hand, partake of that tasteless and formless character 

 known to misguided enthusiasts as " rustic " work. 

 The one is as fatal as the other. A wall is a piece 

 of building, it is architectural in its nature, and 

 should have that quality of precision in form and 

 outline which architecture demands. Yet it must 

 be of the garden, it must not intrude, and it must 



