INTRODUCTION 



GENTLE READER, 

 Before this book goes forth, to find a place 

 perhaps in the homes of garden-lovers, I should 

 like to explain how it has come into existence. It has 

 been my habit for many years past to note anything that 

 has struck me as being of special interest or beauty in the 

 many gardens which I have visited ; and thus I have 

 a large collection of memoranda. 



These have been carefully preserved with a view to 

 transmitting them to students at the College of Gardening 

 at Glynde. Some of my young people tell me that they 

 have been helped by them, and have been made to see 

 beauties and detect faults in garden design which other- 

 wise might have passed unnoticed. It is in the hope 

 that owners of gardens may find in my recollections some- 

 thing to ponder over and consider that they are now 

 offered to the Public. 



I have sought to give suggestions for the perfection of 

 gardens, both small and large, dealing not so much with 

 the colour and arrangement of individual plants as with 

 the lie of the ground and the planning of restful lines, as 

 comprehended by the far-reaching Art of Garden Design. 

 Now that garden craft has attained a point when rich 

 and poor, young and old, people of every standing and 

 position, are all interested in it, there is danger that 



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