PREFACE 



for them.\(We live at a time when, through 

 complexity of thought and speech, artistic 

 questions have got into a maze of confusion. 

 Even teachers by profession confuse them- 

 selves and their unfortunate pupils with 

 vague and hyper-refined talk about art and 

 ''schools'' and '' styles," while all the time 

 much worse work is done than in days when 

 simpler, clearer views were held. To prove 

 this there is the example of the great 

 Masters work and the eternal laws of 

 nature, on the study of which all serious 

 art m.ust be for ever based. Beneath all 

 art there are laws, however subtle, that 

 cannot be ignored without error and waste ; 

 and in garden design there are lessons 

 innumerable both in wild and cultivated 

 Nature which will guide us well if we seek 

 to understand them simply. [ 



These books are made up in great part 

 of quotations from, old books on gardening 

 — many of them, written by men who knew 



