(5art>ens 239 



There are two important elements of design found 

 in nearly all parks and gardens ; one of these is architec- 

 ture and the other is "free nature " as the Germans term 

 it. The law of contradiction or contrast necessarily 

 comes into play here as elsewhere, and on the way it is 

 applied and the way the spirit of one idea breaks into 

 and overflows into the other depends the success of the 

 scheme. 



This scheme divides itself naturally into simple parts, 

 contrasting and in a sense contradicting each other but 

 capable of working out into beautiful pictures. Open 

 spaces of grass and bordering plantations with paths 

 and roads running through them are the two divisions 

 the relations of which should be always kept in mind, 

 whether the object be to design a park or a garden, which 

 after all are fundamentally the same, only variations 

 and combinations of the divisions already indicated. 

 It is a question of the rhythm of low and high, of broad 

 or narrow masses of vegetation, and the overflow of 

 one arrangement into the other. For instance, single 

 trees and small masses of shrubs may be used effectively 

 out in the open lawn beyond the bordering shrubbery, 

 or, on the other hand, the grass spaces may penetrate 

 with good effect far into the shrubbery. 



Then, moreover, these types of division may be 

 applied to a group of small designs and a number of 

 them combined into the main design, which, subject 

 to the same law and presenting the same variety of 

 types, constitutes the treatment of the estate, gardens, 

 lawns, and everything within its bounds. 



