Mater 139 



when the yellow of the azalea beds — discreetly sepa- 

 rated from the rhododendrons by a great clump of 

 low-growing willows — ^finds delicate continuation in 

 the buttercups that fringe the daisied meadows. 

 The lifted banks then afford particularly fortunate 

 points of view: for as we look down upon the rhodo- 

 dendrons, we see the opposite shore and the water 

 with its rich reflected colours as over the edge of a 

 splendid frame. No accent of artificiality disturbs 

 the eye despite the unwonted profusion of bloom and 

 variety of colour. All the plants are suited to the 

 place and in harmony with each other; and all the 

 contours of the shore are gently modulated and softly 

 connected with the water by luxuriant growths of 

 water plants. The witness of the eye alone would 

 persuade us that nature unassisted had achieved the 

 whole result. But beauty of so suave and perfect 

 a sort as this is never a natural product. Nature's 

 beauty is wilder if only because it includes traces of 

 mutation and decay which here are carefully effaced. 

 Nature suggests the ideal beauty, and the artist 

 realizes it by faithfully working out her suggestions."^ 



The two views of castle and moat at Muskau are full 

 of suggestions. The ancient moat has been enlarged 

 in one case to a small lake with charming plantations 

 of trees and shrubs on its borders, and the other, with 

 the moat disappearing from the eye, appeals to the 

 imagination and takes the memory back to ancient days. 



' Garden and Forest, vol. i., p. 8. 



