Art Out-of-Doors 



or an enclosure of some sort where plants are 

 grown chiefly for the sake of their own in- 

 dividual beauties; and so, with us, 'Miome- 

 grounds " is a better term when we want to 

 speak more broadly. 



Speaking, then, of all the grounds near 

 the house, this Englishman explains that 

 there are situations, as on the hill-sides of 

 Italy, where the character of the spot pre- 

 scribes a formal, semi-artificial kind of treat- 

 ment. But, he continues, " the lawn is the 

 heart of the true English garden, and as es- 

 sential as the terrace is to the gardens on the 

 steep hills;" and, in general, these words 

 are true for America as well. In fact, there 

 is less need in America than in England to 

 protest against the making of formal gardens 

 where naturalistic lawns with appropriate 

 framings and backgrounds of foliage should 

 exist. It would be difficult to discover any 

 American homes where on level ground the 

 terrace-walls cut off the view of the landscape 

 from the house, and, on the other hand, the 

 house from the landscape." Nevertheless, 

 there are certain errors in garden-design 

 into which we are as apt to fall as the Eng- 



54 



