SALUTATION 



HIS is a story told in pictures. Many authors 

 have written voluminously on the suhject of 

 landscape gardening, and their works have 

 ^ benefited the professional few; hut in these 

 days of the " strenuous life '" most people have neither the 

 time nor the mood to pursiie abstruse stud.ies.. 



Pictures speak a iuu'\'ersal language, and they speak 

 it with the directness of light and the speed of sight. One 

 glance at a picture will convey more information than 

 many pages of text. This fact has resolved the author, 

 for the sake of brevity and accuracy, to tell his thought 

 with manv pictures rather than with much writing. 



The book is. arranged soiuewhat like an art gallery, 

 the pictures being grouped in an orderly manner for 

 individual study, and the descriptions attached are designed so 

 as to help the reader analyze each subject and to arrive at a 

 fair appreciation of its artistic merits: so that if a man will 

 imagine himself sitting in a Museum of Art on a Sunday after- 

 noon listening to an illustrated lecture by the Director, he will be 

 in a state of mind to receive the most profit and acquire the most 

 knowledge in the art of landscape gardening. And of course 

 when I speak of man I also include woman, for, as Susan B. 

 Anthony used to say, " Man embraces woman." 



The perception of the basic principles of landscape gardening- 

 first came to me several years ago whilst loitering in a picture- 

 gallery. A Corot was on exhibition. And as I looked on that 

 poetic landscape — the dreamland of Fairyland ; that peaceful cot- 

 tage, where neither sigh nor sob of sorrow ever broke ; those sad 

 poplars that told and told again the grief of glories gone before — 

 the kiss that pathos gives to joy; the many-armed vines that crept 

 and twined with root and tendril to the roof — a prophecy ful- 

 filled — there stole into my soul the delicious sense of perception, the 

 electric thrill of discovery. I had found the secret. And from 

 the dawning of that light the laying-out of grounds has been my 

 greatest pleasure and my chiefest joy. 



And in after-years when it became my great good fortune to 

 visit Europe, this beautiful inspiration was supplemented by a 



A SUBURBAN HOME 



careful study of the classic gardens of England and the Continent; 

 and this book, containing the fruit of all my studies and observa- 

 tions on the subject of civic and home beautification, is my con- 

 tribution to the cause of outdoor art in America. 



In writing the descriptions of the pictures no effort has been 

 spared to make my meaning clear, the frequent digressions from 

 my theme being designed to throw an incidental side-light on 

 points that otherwise were moot; and to add to the reader's interest 

 and amusement I have at times indulged a rhythmic flight of 

 poetic fancy or made a few philosophical reflections, whilst on 

 occasions not a few I have ventured with cautious steps to the 

 borderland of mirth. 



The pictures are grouped topically as much as possible and, as 

 the book is designed for the amateur gardener as well as for the 

 experienced landscape architect, I have used both the popular and 

 technical nomenclatures, co-ordinately or singly, always cautious to 

 guard against ambiguity or useless repetition. 



The complete catalogue of trees, shrubs, vines, roses and other 

 plants which is appended to this volume will be a great help to 

 designers in making detail planting lists, and the amateur will 

 find it indispensable. 



TiiTi Author. 



