viii INTRODUCTION 



known where the house now upon it would exactly 

 stand, the garden has less general unity of design 

 than I should have wished. The. position and general 

 form of its various portions were accepted mainly 

 according to their natural conditions, so that the garden 

 ground, though but of small extent, falls into different 

 regions, with a general, but not altogether definite, 

 cohesion. 



I am strongly of opinion that the possession of _a 

 quant ity of plant s, however good the plants may be 

 themselves and however ample their number, does 

 not make a garden ; i-ton]j^akes^a^o//e£^o«. Having 

 goTthe piajitsTthe great thing is to use fhem with 

 careful selection and definite intention. Merely having 

 them, or having them planted unassorted in garden 

 spaces, is only like having a box of paints from the 

 best colourman, or, to go one step further, it is Uke 

 having portions of these paints set out upon a palette. 

 This does not constitute a picture ; and it seems to 

 me that the duty we owe to our, gardens and to our 

 own bettering in our gardens is so to use the plants 

 that they shall form beautiful pi cture s ; and that, 

 while delighting our eyes, they should be always 

 training those eyes to a more exalted criticism ; to a 

 state of mind and artistic conscience that will not 

 ' tolerate bad or careless combination or any sort of 

 misuse of plants, but in which it becomes a point of 

 honour to be always striving for the best. 



It is just in the way it is done that lies the whole 

 difference between commonplace gardening and gar- 

 dening that may rightly claim to rank as a fine art. 



