32 ON SOME EARLY GARDEN HISTORY 



keeps, Corinthian arches and Druid amphi- 

 theatres, of classic urns, Chinese pagodas and 

 Egyptian pyramids, all with inscriptions in Greek 

 or black-letter appealing to the eye of taste 

 and the tear of sensibility." 



We may, however, place to the credit of the 

 English landscape style the broad treatment of 

 parks, the skilful management of large sheets of 

 water, and the effective grouping of trees ; but 

 these were more than counterbalanced by the 

 destruction of the garden near the house, till 

 aU that was ultimately left of the once charming 

 walled pleasance had shrunk into an ugly kitchen 

 garden, unconnected with the house, hiding its 

 necessarily " formal " walls in a neighbouring 

 wood, where hideous greenhouses and untidy, odd 

 potting sheds replaced the stately orangery and 

 the corner garden towers of former days. Such 

 was the garden-craft we brought to India when 

 the fine old Anglo-Indian houses of Madras and 

 Calcutta were in process of building ! 



For whatever we may think of their gardens, 

 the eighteenth - century classical buildings in 

 India were good of their kind and adapted to the 

 climate. But as the English houses grew more 

 formal and severely classical, the gardens, as if 



