170 OLD-FASHIONED GARDENING 



venience. Certain underlying and obvious principles 

 of convenience are of course common to all design — 

 that is, to plan, in its primitive simplicity. These 

 principles form foundation lines, or what among pro- 

 fessional designers would be called the skeleton of 

 the pattern. And every pattern must have them. In- 

 deed they are so important to it that even in the most 

 intricate and seemingly difficult finished product, the 

 trained designer can trace these skeletons; and the 

 total number of them which it is possible to frame 

 is astonishingly low. So in the garden's pattern they 

 are not many, we may be sure. 



In the older design there was no thought of 

 elaborating upon them. Childish simplicity pervades 

 the ancient Spanish garden; it speaks eloquently in 

 the almost total lack of any form except the obvious 

 one which the boundaries of the place suggest, as also 

 in the naive variations in divisions that are intended 

 to be uniform. There is an uncompromising brusque- 

 ness in divisional lines, too, which is childlike. And 

 the attitude of irresponsibility, carelessness, indiffer- 

 ence and indolence which was responsible for the un- 

 tidy condition so characteristic of Spanish gardens, is 

 similarly childlike. Nature was prodigal, as the 

 Spaniard knew her — so why should man be careful? 

 To-morrow, to-morrow — even as little children pro- 

 crastinate — always to-morrow ! 



