Aims and Methods 



asked often enough to manage even very- 

 important ones ; and when they are, their 

 counsels are seldom rightly respected. They 

 may be permitted to lay out a park or a 

 country-place as they wish, but when once 

 their backs are turned, how quick is park- 

 commissioner or owner to retouch and spoil, 

 or to neglect and likewise spoil their work ! 

 How seldom does he ask himself what it was 

 that his landscape-gardener really wanted to 

 do, what was the general effect he wanted to 

 produce, and then address himself to devel- 

 oping and preserving it ! We seldom see 

 any park or country-place, great or small, 

 of which we can say, There is everything 

 here that the eye desires, there is nothing 

 that it could vrish away. Almost any pro- 

 prietor would be surprised did we venture 

 to criticise the view from his window upon 

 the same principles that we should apply to 

 a painting on his walls ; and yet, unless it 

 will bear such criticism, it is not what he 

 should have wished to make it. 



Of course, only an experienced and capa- 

 ble artist is likely to arrange any extensive 

 gardening scheme with success ; and even 



31 



