1o THE BOOK OF GARDEN DESIGN 
designer, whose enthusiasm for the work of others has 
completely over-ruled his own common-sense. We are 
not even meant to imitate Nature, the best of teachers, 
but rather look to her for inspiration, adapting the lessons 
learnt in meadow and woodland to the altered conditions 
which highly cultivated ground imposes. 
Nothing to my mind can be less helpful to the garden 
maker than the common practice which prevails of insti- 
tuting competitions in the horticultural papers, with 
prizes for the best garden design sent in. As an en- 
couragement in the art of draughtsmanship, or a stimulus 
to the beginner to use his ingenuity, this form of plan 
drawing may prove decidedly beneficial. But to imagine 
that the designs themselves are of the slightest practical 
use is, in the majority of cases, absurd. An attractive 
plan, mechanically adaptable to gardens of varying sizes, 
is the greatest temptation which can be set in the path of 
the unwary. It teaches men to grub about the earth 
with measuring rod and chain, levelling, filling up 
hollows, cutting down trees, so that no obstruction may 
be offered to the carrying out of the design in its entirety. 
Whereas all our thoughts should be for the natural ap- 
pearance of the ground, its slopes and gradients, which 
harmonise perfectly with the face of the surrounding 
country. Existing features should in nearly all cases be 
retained, or simply modified to our purpose. Imagine 
the wantonness of cutting down a beautiful tree, because 
our plan says that a path ought to run where it now 
stands; or what possible excuse can there be for ruining 
a stretch of fine turf with beds cut in the form of circles, 
lozenges and triangles. The moral of all this is plain. 
Each garden must be treated, as regards its laying out, 
simply and solely on its own merits and possibilities. It 
matters not whether we are dealing with a humble quarter 
acre attached to the modern villa, or have in hand the 
broad surroundings of the country mansion. There is 
