PREFACE 
T is my ambition, that this book may be the means of 
| handing on to others some portion at least of the enjoyment 
and information which I have gained, by the permission 
so kindly given me to roam and sketch in many gardens. The 
book does not pretend in any way to be an exhaustive account 
of English, Scotch, and Irish gardens, or even to be thoroughly 
representative. Indeed, this would not be possible in the com- 
pass of a single volume. I regret extremely that circumstances 
prevented me from securing pictures of some of the luxuriant 
gardens of the West of England, and of the almost tropical 
effects of South-West Ireland. The subjects illustrated have all 
conveyed to me some lesson of beauty or usefulness; and, as the 
pictures are of results achieved in one part or other of the 
British Isles, I hope they may be equally useful to other 
gardeners, and stimulate the planting of still more beautiful 
effects. I have treated flowers not as single specimens, but 
in relation to their setting of house or wall, lawn or wood- 
land, or as a foreground to the landscape, planned for the beauty 
of the whole effect, for to me a garden is an opportunity of 
growing beautiful pictures. Where flowers are considered solely 
botanically instead of pictorially, the interest of the garden may 
Vv 
