The Garden Magazine, August, 1919 



13 



might very well grow into a troup of village players similar 

 to those of Oberammergau — inasmuch as "dramatic re- 

 presentation" (otherwise, acting) is beginning to receive the 

 recognition from educators and thoughtful social workers 

 that it merits as a tremendous force in human development. 

 It seems eminently proper that this instinct, inherent in all 

 of us, should have its opportunity under such ideal surround- 

 ings as the garden or woods afford — all without the individual 

 approaching in any sense or intending to approach the pro- 

 fession of acting. 



A WORD is not amiss as to the gardens generally that 

 are to be thus used. I am tempted to regard their 

 scenic potentialities and entertainment possibilities as the 

 acid test of their merit as creations of the landscape art. That 

 they shall be "paintable" we have always demanded; but we 

 discover as we go along, that it is quite possible for a garden 

 to have many paintable and delightful bits and yet not meet 

 in its entirety this standard. Actually it is the more exacting 

 standard of the sculptor that must be set up— the seeing 

 from every side, instead of from just one or two or three care- 

 fully chosen and fixed vantage points. 



And this is precisely as it ought to be! There is no part 

 of a garden that may go unconsidered or unbeautified, even 

 though it is obscure and of small consequence in the general 

 scheme — or even though it is purely utilitarian and prac- 

 tical. Portions there may be that must wait years perhaps 

 for their full development, to be sure; but this does not mean 

 that they may be neglected meantime to such an extent that 

 they require hiding or carefully Peering away from. With 

 the intention to use the garden to the uttermost always in 

 mind, it will take on more the aspect of the house as far as 

 thought about it is concerned; and its perfecting in every 

 part and smallest detail will follow, as a matter of course. 



Actually it was just this attention to detail and careful 

 consideration of every part, however obscure it may have 

 been, that gave to the world the beautiful gardens of Italy 

 that are inevitably our standard whatever our preference 

 as to style and character may be. Whether we design as they 

 did or not, inspiration comes from the lovely things that 

 these gardeners — nobles or prelates — have left. In view of 

 the fact that so many were princes of the church, it is inter- 

 esting to note the same care over the seemingly inconspicuous 

 detail in the gardens that impresses when a great cathedral 

 brought to completion under the same authorities, is studied. 

 Nothing escapes the painstaking instinct to make beautiful. 



This is something that the gardeners of the Far East also 

 bring to their work — infinite taking pains with just those 

 things that we, being always preoccupied with the larger 

 features and more noticeable parts, neglect. Of course it is 

 simply because they are older than we; they value the full 

 completion of a thing even more perhaps than we value its 

 conception and inauguration. To us, it is so great to have 

 thought of it and to have made an enthusiastic dashing at- 

 tempt at it that it has not mattered greatly, with the majority, 

 whether the careful, loving finish that takes time and patience 

 and painstaking has been rounded out or not. 



NOT that 1 am anxious to criticise; but in order that the 

 gardens that are already made here in America shall go 

 on to the greater perfection which a garden must ever be 



moving toward — or away from ! — it is necessary to point out 

 those things wherein they fall short. And that is what I am 

 trying to do. They are largely things of detail ; not the detail 

 of care and exactness and neatness — too often indeed, just 

 these things are overdone — but detail of thought, 1 am 

 tempted to call it. That is, the rounding to completion of 

 the conception, the finish of the work as a great and con- 

 sistent unit of beauty, not simply as a place to be planted. 

 It is not a thing that comes for the asking, nor for the wish 

 for it. It is rather a thing of slowly awakening understand- 

 ing, of gradually clarifying perception, of rising aspiration. 

 It is the thing that commoner and more intimate use of the 

 garden will bring, just as this use of the garden will bring 

 sharpened appreciation of the beauties already developed; 

 and of many unsuspected, I have no doubt. For most gar- 

 dens are far lovelier than any one suspects — unless they are 

 far uglier. Intimacv alone will reveal which; hence, even if 

 you have no intention to take up garden entertaining this 

 year or another — or if you have no intention to entertain at 

 all! — take your self into your garden and seek your own en- 

 tertainment there, in solitude, if this is preferred. 



-BELGIUM OF TO-DAY" 

 The supreme tragedy conveyed by Mrs. Reginald Vanderbilt's imper- 

 sonation of this desolated land, at the Newport Red Cross Fete given at the 

 home of Mrs. Arthur Curtiss James, could be provided with no finer setting 

 than the desolation of Nature's own bare rocks 



