Faults in Gardening 



to-day, gone to-morrow. The very tidi- 

 ness of the beds and the neat propriety of 

 the plants contribute to this impression. 

 We feel the omnipresence of a severity 

 which cannot tolerate straggling. None 

 have been admitted but polished gentlemen 

 who will never break the rules ; and we 

 feel that the most cherished offender would 

 be instantly and remorselessly punished.^ 

 But the old garden impresses us always 

 by that evidence of loving tenderness for 

 the plants. "That wallflower ought not 

 to have come up in the box-edging; but 

 never mind, we must manage to get on 

 without hurting the wallflower." And k 

 is this spirit of compromise, this happy, 

 genial, kindly character, as contrasted with 

 the sterner and less loving spirit which 

 you feel ready to descend upon any trans- 

 gressor in a moment, that makes the 

 difference of which we speak. 



It is plain, then, that in any garden 

 where the meaner plants are slighted or 



' I have been referring here to the herbaceous plants 

 and evergreens of the ordinary beds (Thujas, Junipers, 

 Rhododendrons, &c.), rather than to the larger trees and 

 shrubs. To run down the glorious Rhododendrons in 

 themselves would be preposterous, but they always have^ 

 however large they may grow, an air of gentlemanly re- 

 straint, a drawing-room manner, as it were, which must 

 produce the effect we have described wherever they are 

 very numerous. 



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