THE GARDEN OF MRS. G. ARTHUR SCHIEREN AT GREAT NECK, LONG ISLAND 



With the broad steps as a sort of pivot, the garden radiates out from the dwelling in free sweeping lines and lies like 

 a great, gay fan at one's feet, outspread to meet the blue of near-by waters. Designed by Miss Ruth Dean, L. A. 



THE HOUSE THAT WAS BUILT 

 FOR A GARDEN 



ARTHUR W. COLTON 



Editors' Note: Because garden and house are so inevitably linked, so essentially interdependent, we believe that gardeners everywhere will 

 find much to interest and inspire in this series of articles, especially prepared for us by Mr. Colton, which presents some happy solutions achieved 

 by Americans of skill and imagination. Preceding articles may be found in The Garden Magazine for December, 1921, January and March, 1922. 



IV. MAKING THE GARDEN A MEDIATOR BETWEEN DWELLING AND SEA 



[HE production of a country place — with its house and 

 furnishings, gardens, orchards, groves, lawns, vistas, 

 and so on — has this resemblance in complexity to the 

 production of a play, that it can hardly ever be the 

 work of a single artist. The dramatist can control his unity of 

 action, but his unity of effect lies at the mercy of actors, stage 

 managers, scene painters and who not. Into the country place 

 has entered the various purposes of owner, architect, interior 

 decorator, landscape architect, and even the secret and subter- 

 ranean plots of the plumber. The thoughtful landscape archi- 

 tect tells you that an estate should be planned as a whole, and 

 have a unity of design. One is drawn to add a comprehensive 

 sympathy to one's agreement with this thoughtful theory. 

 The foundation of every valid canon is the end which it serves, 



and unity of design is a canon whose foundation in service is 

 reasonably substantial and distinct. Essentially the end which 

 it serves is economy of attention giving a sense of satisfaction, 

 peace, and the restfulness of a goal attained. The goal is a 

 certain completeness of comprehension. One wants a total 

 impression. Unity of design is a short cut to it. Whatever 

 is left outside the design is outside the single impression, and 

 after all it is unity of effect that is really striven for, and unity 

 of design is only a sensible artifice to that end. 



The theory is sound though the end may sometimes be 

 achieved without it, by the processes of nature, of time, of acci- 

 dent. Nature herself knows all about it, and shows her knowl- 

 edge in every leaf and tree. But what unity of design is there 

 in the forest itself? And yet the forest has unity of effect just 



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