GARDEN DESIGN 31 



" Nature " and what we mean 



BY IT 



As to a natural school of landscape 

 gardening, the authors say : 



A great deal is said about Nature and her beauty, 

 and fidelity to Nature, and so on ; but as the 

 landscape gardener never takes the trouble to 

 state precisely what he means by Nature, and, 

 indeed, prefers to use the word in half a dozen 

 different senses, we are not very much the wiser 

 so far as principles are concerned. 



They make this statement as if all 

 beautiful natural landscape were a closed 

 book ; as if there were no stately Yews, 

 in natural forms, on the Merrow Downs, 

 as well as clipped Yews at Elvaston ; as 

 if the tree -fringed mountain lawns of 

 Switzerland did not exist ; or lovely 



