THE OLD-FASHIONED GARDEN 161 



of praise or interest, or even a second thought. Ob- 

 viously, therefore, it is not with anything as simple 

 as the actual meaning of the words that we have to 

 deal. It is their associated meaning that is in need 

 of analysis. 



The limitation of time — or perhaps more accurately, 

 the time limit — is the first and most important thing 

 to establish, with regard to the compound. When is a 

 thing old-fashioned? That all depends; the words 

 themselves, being altogether relative, require that a 

 limit be fixed, arbitrarily, in order that this question 

 may be answered. Some period must be defined be- 

 yond which they shall not reach, and before which 

 they shall not advance. Yesterday's fashion in a 

 frock or a frill, is old to-day; last year's fashion in a 

 romance, the fashion of a decade since in sports, or 

 of fifty years ago in dwellings — all these are old 

 fashions, now. Yet how instantly does the magic of 

 the term cleave from it when it is applied to any of 

 these tame and tiresome back-numbers. Assuredly it 

 is none of these degrees of old fashion which appeal. 



Its application to the art of gardening is of course 

 the use which I am seeking to ground upon a clearer 

 purpose. Its limitations in this instance, therefore, 

 must be set according to the periods of this art — and 

 these have varied in different parts of the world, even 

 as we have found that they varied here within our 



