August, 1 9 10 



AMERICAN HOMES AND GARDENS 



319 



Fig. 6 — A wild garden 



"When in the Garden's Entrance you provide, 



The Waters, there united, to divide : 



First, in the Center a large Fountain make — 



Which from a narrow Pipe its Rise may take. 



And to the Air those Waves by which 'tis fed, 



Remit again; about it raise a Bed 



Of Moss or Grass; but if you think this base. 



With well-wrought Marble circle in the Place." 



As a contrast let us take a charming and sequestered gar- 

 den of seven or eight acres planted about the beginning of 

 the eighteenth century, belonging, not to a stately villa, but 

 a small cottage the "habitation of an ancient maiden lady," 

 and thus described by Sir Walter Scott: "It was full of long 

 straight walks between hedges of yew and hornbeam, which 

 rose tall and close on every side. There were thickets of 

 flowering shrubs, a bower, and an arbor, to which access 

 was obtained through a little maze of contorted walks call- 

 ing itself a labyrinth. In the center of the bower was a 

 splendid Platanus, or Oriental plane — a huge hill of leaves 

 — one of the noblest specimens of that regularly beauti- 

 ful tree which we remember to have seen. In different parts 

 of the garden were fine ornamental trees which had at- 

 tained great size, and the orchard was filled with fruit trees 

 of the best description. There were seats and trellis-walks 

 and a banqueting house." 



Suggestions for furnishing a Dutch garden de luxe may 

 be found in the following descriptions of the famous one 

 at Het Loo, still the favorite Royal residence in Holland. 

 The garden was designed by Marot and this account of it 

 was written in 1699: 



"The hedges are chiefly of Dutch elms; and the avenues 

 of oaks, elms and limes. The figures into which the trees 

 and shrubs are cut are, for the most part, pyramids. On 

 the walls fresco paintings are introduced in various places 

 between the trees. In the arbor walks of the queen's gar- 

 den are seats and opposite to them windows through which 

 views can be had of the fountains, statues and other ob- 

 jects in the open garden. The parterres in the queen's gar- 



den are surrounded by hedges of Dutch elm about four feet 

 high. The seats and prop work of all the arbors and the 

 trellis-work on the fruit tree walls are painted green. All 

 along the gravel walks and round the middle fountain are 

 placed orange trees and lemon trees in portable wooden 

 frames and flower-pots about them." 



Another idea well worth imitating was seen by Madame 

 de Sevigne at a French chateau in 1675, when she wrote 

 to her daughter as follows: 



"There is a grove of orange trees in great tubs; you walk 

 there; and they form alleys in the shade; and to hide the 

 tubs there are two rows of pallisades high enough to lean 

 on, all aflower with tube roses, jasmines and carnations. 

 It is assuredly the most beautiful, the most surprising and 

 the most enchanting novelty imaginable." 



In all periods people of taste have enjoyed the Wild 

 Garden. Lord Bacon included a Heath in his series of 

 beautiful gardens, and wished it 



"Framed as much as may be to a Natural Wildness. 

 Trees I would have none in it, but some Thickets, made 

 only of Sweetbriar and Honeysuckle and some Wild Vine 

 amongst; and the Ground set with Violets, Strawberries and 

 Primroses; for these are sweet and proper in the Shade. 

 And these to be In the Heath, here and there, not in any 

 Order. I also like little Heaps in the Nature of Mole 

 Hills (such as are in Wild Heaths) to be set, some with 

 Wild Thyme, some with Pinks, some with Germander, that 

 gives a good Flower to the Eye; some with Periwinkle, 

 some with Violets, some with Strawberries, some with Cow- 

 slips, some with Daisies, some with Red Roses, some with 

 Lilium Convallium, some with Sweet Williams Red, some 

 with Bear's Foot, and the like Low Flowers being withall 

 sweet and sightly. Part of which Heaps to be with stand- 

 ards of little Bushes pricket upon their top, and part with- 

 out; the Standards to be Roses, Juniper, Holly, Bear-ber- 

 ries (but here and there because of the smell of their blos- 

 som). Red Currants, Gooseberries, Rosemary, Bays, 

 Sweet-briar, and such like. But these Standards to be kept 

 with Cutting that they grow not out of course." 



1* ig. 7 — A luslic scltec 



