234 POT-POURRI FROM A SURREY GARDEN 



the third, published in 1883. Everyone interested in the 

 subject ought to read it. The picture, at the end of the 

 book, of a section of a pauper corner in a London 

 cemetery is, I think, enough to convert anybody ; but it 

 does not seem to me that the practice of cremation is 

 gaining much ground. The recent sweeping-away of 

 West End London cemeteries contrasts badly, even 

 from the point of view of sentiment, with the tombs at 

 Pompeii used for urns ; the chapter referring to these 

 is headed 'Permanent, Unpolluted, Inviolate.' That is 

 certainly not the modern cemetery ! 



In 1892 Mr. Eobinson published two lectures of 

 considerable severity, called ' Garden Design ' and 

 ' Architects' Gardens.' These lectures were mainly 

 directed against two books ; one, that seemed to contradict 

 all Mr. Robinson's work, was ' The Formal Garden in 

 England,' by Reginald Blomfield and T. Inigo Thomas. 

 The fact is, that near large and stately houses there must 

 be some kind of formal laying-out of the ground, 

 even if ever so informally planted (Mr. Eobinson him- 

 self would be the first to recognise this), unless everything 

 is sacrificed to stateliness, and turf alone is admitted. 

 The whole discussion is full of interest to those who 

 possess large places. The next book on which Mr. 

 Eobinson pours the vials of his vrrath (I love righteous 

 indignation on one's pet subject) is ' Garden Craft, Old 

 and New,' by John D. Sedding. Of all Mr. Eobinson's 

 books, the ' English Flower Garden ' will always remain 

 his masterpiece ; and I repeat here, what I said in January, 

 that no modern gardener can get on without it. Every 

 village club should have it, as weU as his first-rate little 

 halfpenny paper, ' Cottage Gardening,' which has many 

 useful things in it besides gardening. 



Anyone who can remember the gardening of the last 

 thirty years will have no difficulty in recognising all that 



