2 THE BOOK OF GARDEN DESIGN 
making consists in the endeavour to duplicate a whole 
landscape on a small scale—this was an error into which 
Brown’s followers blindly fell—but because so much 
that is of value to us may be gathered from an intelligent 
study of the means by which Nature achieves her most 
beautiful effects. The disposition of wood and water in 
a stretch of well-balanced scenery, the beautifully pro- 
portioned effect of level and rising ground, of valleys 
and hills; all these afford an object lesson, which, at 
some time or other, is bound to prove suggestive when 
endeavouring to forecast results in artificially arranged 
grounds. Nature, then, is the school where the novice 
should go to be thoroughly taught the rudiments of his 
art. Not only will he learn much that is not to be 
found in books, but his love of the picturesque and 
beautiful will be fostered and encouraged—a necessary 
proceeding if he is to achieve any measure of success as 
a maker of gardens. 
To a certain extent the good designer is born not 
made, but much may be done by intelligent study and a 
real fondness for the work, to make up for any lack of 
natural ability in this direction. But in order to plan a 
really satisfactory garden, one qualification is absolutely 
essential: before all things the designer must be himself 
a gardener. That is, he must have spent some portion 
of his life actually working among the flowers and trees, 
whose suitable arrangement he afterwards proposes to 
decide. He must have sown and planted with his own 
hand, watched the growth of leaf and bud, and observed 
the habit of each plant and its adaptability to certain 
situations. Colour effects must also be noted, in short, 
nothing should be allowed to escape his eye which 
concerns the varied phases in the life of the simplest of 
the garden trees and flowers. Here lies the secret of 
half the failures which have occurred since garden 
making came to be regarded as something more than 
