THE PRINCIPLES OF GARDEN-MAKING 



and by the aid of this clearer view we ought to make the English 

 formal garden once again a really living thing. 



At the same time it would be very undesirable to have in existence 

 again a formal convention ; fashion has done so much harm to the 

 gardener's art that the avoidance of stereotyped methods of practice, 

 which are followed simply because they chance to be popular, is 

 urgently necessary. The formal garden has its place in domestic 

 decoration, and a place that is important and definite enough ; but, 

 as has been already said, there is ample room for the landscape 

 garden also. But the modern landscape garden must not be a 

 studied and narrow preconception like Kent's planted pictures or 

 Brown's belt, clump, and lake combinations. The landscape gar- 

 dener must be a student of nature at first hand, and must be fitted by 

 the thoroughness of his study to adapt realities to the purposes of 

 his design. For him, too, there are many warnings in the mistakes 

 of his predecessors; he can see plainly enough, if he chooses, how 

 ignorantly and arrogantly men of Brown's type set about the re- 

 arrangement of nature to suit themselves, and how deficient they 

 were in that refinement of taste which alone would have justified 

 their pretensions. 



But he can obtain also many hints as to the direction in which his 

 own development should tend from the precepts of some of the 

 designers who were in the thick of the conflict which resulted in the 

 destruction of the formal garden. Repton, though he committed 

 himself in his work on " Landscape Gardening " to such an absurd 

 statement as this : — " The motley appearance of red bricks with 

 white stone, by breaking the unity of effect, will often destroy the 

 magnificence of the most splendid compositions," and advocated 

 unity of effect produced by the use of stucco or paint, was a garden 

 designer of more intelligence than most of his immediate contem- 

 poraries. Some of his suggestions are quite worth remembering — 

 for instance, " There is no error more prevalent in modern gardening, 

 or more frequently carried to excess, than taking away hedges to 

 unite many small fields into one extensive and naked lawn before 

 plantations are made to give it the appearance of a park ; and where 

 ground is subdivided by sunk fences imaginary freedom is purchased 

 at the expense of actual confinement," or, " the boldness and naked- 

 ness round the house is part of the same mistaken system of 

 concealing fences to gain extent. A palace, or even an elegant villa, 

 in a grass field, appears to me incongruous." 



In other comments on the fashion of his time he shows a useful 

 degree of independence : — " The plantation surrounding a place, 



XXV 



