68 GARDEN DESIGN 



wretched kind produced by some pro- 

 cess, the only interesting one being one 

 of Levens. The most childish ideas 

 of the garden prevail — indeed we hardly 

 like to call them childish, because 

 children do put sensible questions and 

 see clearly. For instance, for the author 

 there is no art in gardening at all — the 

 " art " consists entirely of building walls 

 and planting Yew hedges. Thus the 

 work of the late James Backhouse, who 

 knew every flower on the hills of 

 Northern England, and expressed that 

 knowledge in his charming rock garden, 

 is not art, but cutting a tree into the 

 shape of a cocked hat is art, according 

 to Mr. Sedding ! 



He assumes that landscape gardeners 

 all follow artistic ways, and that only 

 architects make terraces ; whereas the 

 greatest sinners in this respect have 

 been landscape gardeners — Nesfield and 

 Paxton. He has paid so little attention 



