2 BOOK OF THE COTTAGE GARDEN 



pieces of cultivated land which combine the material 

 possibilities of market establishments with the healthy 

 facilities of recreation grounds. Their planning and 

 arrangement must be conducted on precisely similar 

 principles to those governing the laying down of rail- 

 roads or the building of factories ; whilst their main 

 object would be to serve purposes of economical con- 

 venience. Granting, for the sake of argument, that 

 this is the case, there can be no question of the accuracy 

 of those who declare that the cottage gardens of England 

 are examples of garden craft in its crudest and most 

 elementary form. From this, it naturally follows that to 

 write a book dealing with such gardens is, to anyone 

 possessed of the smallest aptitude for horticultural pen- 

 manship, a ridiculously easy proceeding. The limitations 

 of the subject preclude any reference to matters requiring 

 the highest skill and knowledge ; the book, in fact, is 

 suited only for the lowest shelf of the garden litterateur's 

 library, the places of honour being reserved for advanced 

 works dealing with gardens in the Italian style, gardens 

 with statuary and fountains, gardens which cost thousands 

 of pounds to maintain, gardens where, with skilled pro- 

 fessionals and their aproned assistants, rare orchids are 

 coaxed into bloom under conditions which may help to 

 remind them of their native tropics. 



But supposing after all that these things are not so ; 

 that the cottage garden, far from being an insignificant 

 attempt to ape the splendours of more pretentious 

 pleasure grounds, is in reality our nearest available 

 approach to the ideal. Surely, then, we may pause in 

 our judgment, at anyrate until such time as we have 

 ascertained the truth or otherwise of the presumption. 

 And that this same presumption is not false but true, is 

 exactly what I hope to prove so far as the limits of this 

 book will allow, at the same time showing the possi- 

 bilities which the small country garden offers in the way 



