GARDENS AND GARDEN DESIGNERS 9g 
business, if business it may be called, can be conducted 
by post. Surely, they argue, the professional, if he 
knows anything at all, will have no difficulty in advising 
without the trouble and expense of a visit. Given the 
dimensions of a plot of ground, what can be easier than 
to make a plan on paper showing the positions to be 
occupied by lawns, shrubberies, flower beds and walks? 
Alas, this is how hundreds of gardens are made, and the 
same wretched designs are dumped about the country 
like so many copies of a popular picture. A quotation 
from the writings of Batty Langley will show that the 
man who relies on plans is depending for guidance ona sadly 
broken reed. He says :—‘‘ Now, as the Beauty of Gar- 
dens in general depends upon an elegant Disposition of all 
their Parts, which cannot be determined without a perfect 
Knowledge of its several Ascendings, Descendings, Views, 
etc., how is it possible that any Person can make a good 
Design for any Garden whose Situation they never saw? 
To draw a beautiful, regular Draught is not to the 
Purpose: for altho’ it makes a handsome Figure on the 
paper, yet it has quite a different Effect when executed 
on the ground.” Individuals must necessarily have their 
peculiarities, and it is right they should: we recognise 
the same qualities, perhaps some trick of light and shade, 
in a score of totally different subjects painted by a great 
artist. But there is no excuse for the designer who, having 
laid out one garden to his satisfaction, immediately pro- 
ceeds to imitate his previous effort in a dozen different 
places. Because a terrace happens to look well in a 
hillside garden, there is no reason for supposing that its 
inclusion is desirable in one situated on the level. Yet 
how many tons of earth have been carted from one place 
to another, so that stupid embankments might be raised, 
and afterwards fortified with terraces—all this in places 
where there was not a hill for miles. Love of imitation 
has been the downfall of many an otherwise good 
