230 GARDENS : THEIR FORM AND DESIGN 



a gap in the border, they can easily be dropped into a well- 

 prepared bed. This system, although it lends itself to the 

 upkeep of a place being always at its best, necessarily 

 takes away from the permanent and the personal touch 

 we all love so well. The people require colour and 

 brilliancy ; therefore much has to be sacrificed to keep 

 flower-beds always at their best. Perhaps this is the 

 reason why in long herbaceous borders, such as those that 

 were formerly at Hampton Court, there seems a want of 

 restful greens, interspersed amongst vivid colour. Then, 

 too, although well-grown delphiniums and other flowers 

 are boldly massed, they sometimes are too squarely 

 blocked and made to look like regimental lines. The 

 small touches we love in private gardens, where plants 

 are grouped, not for colour alone, but because their leaves, 

 too, go well together, are more difficult to achieve in 

 public gardens. 



The many difficulties which have to be overcome make 

 us, perhaps, value all the more what the Superintendent of 

 London parks accomplishes so ably year by year. How 

 wonderful his work is when we reflect that it requires 

 little less than a fortnight to visit critically the gardens 

 that come under his office. He plans and provides for all 

 parks and gardens, post offices, museums, and public 

 buildings in London. The King's garden and Osborne 

 House are also maintained in perfect order and beauty 

 under his direction. Probably few of those who enjoy 

 the glory of the lovely flower-borders are aware of the 

 heavy work entailed in designing colour effects for 

 hundreds of beds. They do not think of the labour there 

 is in supervising so large a body of workmen. Then, 

 again, attention to the requirements of all flowering 

 shrubs, correct pruning of the much discussed trees in the 

 Mall and many others, the care of turf and paths, these 



