278 WOOD AND GARDEN 



It is not as if I wanted anything out of the way ; I 

 only want a lot of common things like that," waving a 

 hand airily at my precious border, while scarcely taking 

 the trouble to look at it. 



And I have had another visitor of about the same 

 degree of appreciative insight, who, contemplating some 

 cherished garden picture, the consummation of some 

 long-hoped-for wish, the crowning joy of years of 

 labour, said, " Now look at that ; it is just right, and 

 yet it is quite simple — there is absolutely nothing in 

 it ; now, why can't my man give me that ? " 



I am far from wishing to disparage or undervalue 

 the services of the honest gardener, but I think that 

 on this point there ought to be the clearest under- 

 standing; that the master must not expect from the 

 gardener accomplishments that he has no means of 

 acquiring, and that the gardener must not assume 

 that his knowledge covers all that can come within 

 the scope of the widest and best practice of his craft. 

 There are branches of education entirely out of his 

 reach that can be brought to bear upon garden plan- 

 ning and arrangement down to the very least detail. 

 What the educated employer who has studied the 

 higher forms of gardening can do or criticise, he cannot 

 be expected to do or understand ; it is in itself almost 

 the work of a lifetime, and only attainable, like success 

 in any other fine art, by persons of, firstly, special 

 temperament and aptitude; and, secondly, by their 

 unwearied study and closest application. 



