A JAPANESE TEA-GARDEN 



front extended a bit of turf like a rieh, green velvet 

 carpet, bordering which bulked a thick mass of 

 native trees, beeches, maples, elms, horse-chest- 

 nuts, etc. From the end of this plantation 

 appeared a winding stream or brook, planted 

 with wild flowers and spanned by rustic bridges, 

 with groups of trees and shrubs used in a natural 

 style, which contrived to help the perspective 

 scheme and lent the effect of distance. This 

 apparently completed the place, making Nature 

 quaint, dainty, neat, polished, and highly civilized. 



Passing down a walk bordering the main group 

 of trees the tour de force of the place suddenly 

 appears from unexpected spaces : a Japanese tea- 

 garden and a perfect one. The brook is bordered 

 by Japanese flowers and Japanese maples and 

 cherries, both dwarf and large-growing. To com- 

 plete it all, there appeared an actual Japanese 

 home in the shape of a little cottage occupied by 

 the gardener and his wife. The place was small, 

 but the labor and genius applied to it were in their 

 way astonishing. You were in another world 

 when you reached it, and before you reached it 

 you did not dream of its existence. 



All this is very admirable and it is characteristic 

 of the way the French do much of their landscape 

 gardening. In America we want things different; 

 hedge-rows full of bright-berried bushes and varied 

 autumn colors; meadows full of pepperidges, 

 liquidambars, and thorns growing in irregular 

 groups along flowing brooks ; wide-spreading grass 

 lands backed by woods generations old; hillsides 



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