GARDENS AND GARDEN DESIGNERS 7 
by slow gradations, the most formal design was merged 
without incongruity into the wild and uncultivated 
landscape which bordered the property. Repton also 
made a number of sketches in connection with his work, 
tending to show how the general appearance of his 
garden would change from time to time, as the trees 
grew and the idea of newness disappeared. Though we 
cannot agree with many of the rules laid down by him 
for the benefit of future workers, there is much to 
admire in his methods of garden planning and arrange- 
ment. If he cannot be considered as the inventor of any 
marked and novel departure (the ‘‘ gardenesque” style 
excepted), at any rate he did nothing to spoil existing 
gardens by the introduction of foolish innovations, which 
was the fault of many who went before him. Where 
his ideas on garden planning must be considered as at 
total variance with our own was in the banishing of 
many necessary conveniences, simply because they did 
not happen to be ornamental or harmonise exactly with 
the landscape. A garden is a place of pleasure and 
recreation, and there can be no possible harm in erecting 
comfortable summer houses, seats and resting places, 
from which to view its beauties, even though these are 
not to be found in natural scenery of the ideal type. 
But the examination in detail of the idiosyncrasies of 
each and every garden designer would be, to say the 
least of it, a proceeding which could do no good, and 
might be productive of much harm. The novice, seeking 
for assistance and advice, will be needlessly confused by 
any lengthened reference to the various ‘‘ styles” laid 
down as correct by individuals of widely differing tastes 
and ideas. After all, when we have laboriously studied 
the art of garden making in this and other countries as it 
existed over a number of years, and have nodded ap- 
proval at the work of a certain exponent, only to find 
later that our ideas are more in accord with those of his 
