THE COTTAGE GARDEN 



of achieving real and lasting beauty by the simplest and 

 most natural means. 



Scattered throughout the length and breadth of Eng- 

 land, facing dusty roadsides, hidden among the shadows 

 of quiet lanes, clinging to the slopes of seaworn cliffs, 

 skirting golden commons, are cottage gardens innumer- 

 able. Rarely are they ugly 5 often they are pictures of 

 sweetest charm and complete artistic fulfilment. Here 

 is no straining after effect, no surrender to the dictates 

 of passing fashion, no meaningless attempt to introduce 

 into an environment utterly foreign to them, styles and 

 mannerisms borrowed from other countries. Here we 

 shall seek in vain the statuary and vases which, according 

 so admirably with the stately dignity of those memory- 

 haunted gardens of Italy, distort and make hideous the 

 expensive gardens" which certain architects have 

 planned for English parvenus. Motives of economy, 

 if not those of better feeling, have excluded from our 

 wayside gardens the varnished huts with windows of 

 stained glass, which, dignified as summer-houses, adorn 

 a thousand suburban plots. The cheap conservatory is 

 conspicuous by its absence ; there are no ricketty chairs 

 with striped awnings, tawdry Japanese umbrellas or 

 portable hammocks. In short, the average cottage 

 garden is a garden, not a piece of ground littered with 

 a medley of rubbish, which lacks even the merit of 

 accomplishing the doubtful purpose for which it was 

 intended. 



Tended with jealous care, or, as is often the case, left 

 to work out unaided nature's scheme of flower design, 

 these humble gardens are frequently models worthy of 

 the utmost consideration. Their very simplicity disarms 

 criticism : the homely flowers basking in the sun are like 

 old friends ; the perfumed lavender and night-scented 

 stock breathe a fragrance which stirs within us memories 

 of happy childhood, memories which, strange to say, are 



