LARGE AND SMALL GARDENS 183 



the Valley, and perhaps Snowdrops, or any of the 

 smaller bulbs that most commended themselves to the 

 taste of the master. 



Such an orchard garden, well-composed and beaU' 

 tifuUy grouped, always with that mdispensable quaUty 

 of good " dra^ving," would not only be a source of un- 

 ending pleasure to those who lived in the place, but a 

 valuable lesson to all who saw it ; for it would show 

 the value of the simple and sensible ways of using a 

 certain class of related trees and bushes, and of using 

 them with a dehberate intention of making the best of 

 them, instead of the usual meaningless-nohow way of 

 planting. This, in nine cases out of ten, means either 

 ignorance or carelessness, the planter not caring enough 

 about the matter to take the trouble to find out what 

 is best to be done, and being quite satisfied with a 

 mixed lot of shrubs, as offered in nursery sales, or with 

 the choice of the nurseryman. I do not presume to 

 condemn all mixed planting, only stupid and ignorant 

 mixed planting. It is not given to all people to take 

 their pleasures alike; and I have in my mind four 

 gardens, all of the highest interest, in which the plant- 

 ing is all mixed; but then the mixture is of ad- 

 mirable ingredients, collected and placed on account 

 of individual merit, and a ramble round any one of 

 these in company with its owner is a pleasure and a 

 privilege that one cannot prize too highly. Where the 

 garden is of such large extent that experimental plant- 

 ing is made with a good number of one good thing 



