Art Out-of-Doors 



is, in the long run, the costhest and most 

 troublesome which can be adopted for the 

 adornment of a garden, either large or 

 small. But I want to speak simply of the 

 artistic value of the formal pattern-bed. Is 

 it a beautiful thing, or is it an ugly thing ? 



Like almost everything else in the world, 

 a formal flower-bed is beautiful or ugly ac- 

 cording to whether it is itself well designed 

 or badly designed, but especially whether it 

 is in the right place or the wrong place. 

 Even great intrinsic beauty will not save 

 it from condemnation unless it satisfies the 

 broad artistic test of fitness. 



Pattern-beds are conspicuously formal — 

 that is, symmetrical and rigid — -in outline, 

 and very often in surface, and conspicuously 

 brilliant in color. Therefore, they are in- 

 trinsically good when their outlines are 

 agreeable to the eye, and when their colors 

 are harmoniously arranged ; and they are 

 appropriate where rigid, symmetrical lines 

 of other sorts accompany them, and where a 

 large spot of vivid color does not strike too 

 loud a note in the general eft^ect of the 

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