Art Out-of-Doors 



script of the woodland world ; it is common 

 vegetation ennobled — outdoor scenery neat- 

 ly writ in man's small hand. It is a sort of 

 twin-picture, conceived of man in the studio 

 of his brain, painted upon Nature's canvas 

 with the aid of her materials. ... It 

 is Nature's rustic language made fluent and 

 intelligible ; Nature's garrulous prose tersely 

 recast ^ — changed into imaginative shapes, 

 touched to finer issues." 



These are John Sedding's words, written 

 by an architect, and printed in a book 

 which has for its main purpose to exalt 

 formal gardening and to decry the so- 

 called landscape-gardener " as a person who 

 is not an artist at all, but a mere helpless, 

 aimless meddler with Nature, professing to 

 do work exactly like Nature's, and, of course, 

 always failing in the attempt. But this book 

 is one of those which most grievously mis- 

 represent the true ideals, methods, and results 

 of landscape-gardening, however faithful may 

 be its pictures of what the actual professors 

 of the art to-day achieve in England ; and I 

 have delighted to emphasize the fact by 

 quoting this one passage as an admirable 

 162 



