Formal Gardening 



description of genuine landscape - arrange- 

 ments — as essentially inappropriate to any 

 formal arrangement. 



In a true formal garden the canvas is not 

 Nature's and does not profess to be, while 

 in the naturalistic garden it may be Nature's, 

 and, if not, must look as though it might 

 have been. In a formal garden the language 

 is not a refinement of Nature's, but a trans- 

 lation of it into quite another tongue. In 

 a formal garden Nature is not delicately 

 humored, but boldly compelled in a direc- 

 tion opposite to any of those which she ever 

 chooses. A formal garden is not man's 

 transcript of the woodland world, but a 

 wholly new conception based on architect- 

 ural knowledge and elaborated by architect- 

 ural taste. It is as artificial, almost, as a 

 building; for, although its materials are 

 Nature's, so are the stones of a cathedral ; 

 and Nature shows us nothing at all resem- 

 bling it, either in fundamental idea or in 

 finished effect. 



On the other hand, Mr. Sedding has ex- 

 actly and beautifully painted such scenes as 

 we may see in Central Park. They are not 



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