Formal Gardening 



tered from its virginal estate, a formal gar- 

 den, no matter how small and modest, would 

 be too palpably artificial. We should not 

 want to see even the old New England door- 

 yard, with its box-bordered beds, reproduced 

 on a Catskill mountain-side, under the shade 

 of ancient hemlocks, with a panorama of 

 wild woodland scenery showing beyond it ; 

 nor, again, in front of a rough seaside cot- 

 tage, on the edge of a beach with its fringe 

 of wild-growing shrubs and creepers and 

 flowers. But would formal gardens of this, 

 or even of a much more boldly architectural 

 kind, be unfitting in the main streets of our 

 little towns, in the outlying villa - streets 

 of our towns of the second and the third 

 class, along the fine boulevards of big de- 

 tached houses which are characteristic of 

 many of our great Western cities, or in lux- 

 urious summer-resorts like Newport ? 



At Newport especially I have often wished 

 that someone — architect, owner, or gar- 

 dener — had had the wit to see how charm- 

 ing and how individual he might make his 

 domain by some formal method of treat- 

 ment. Of course I do not speak of the 



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