OF BEGINNINGS 13 



for the beautiful. And in their tight little fatherland 

 the Dutch had long been masters of gardening. 



Yet what they gained in a superior knowledge of 

 garden craft was perhaps oflFset by what they lacked 

 in taste; so that, after all, the gardens of their making, 

 though different, were no finer than the English gar- 

 dens to the north and to the south of them. Nor were 

 they by any means as lovely as the careless gardens of 

 the Andalusians, away beyond. 



