154 ROYAL GARDENS 



for the purpose of showing flowers to the very best advan- 

 tage. At other gardens, too, splendid natural or arranged 

 backgrounds are employed which have been mentioned in 

 previous chapters. 



A revival of an old practice is again in favour among 

 garden designers of the present day, which gives the best 

 possible results so far as large gardens are concerned. That 

 is, to design formal ' old-fashioned ' gardens near the house, 

 lawns and shade trees in a very irregular belt beyond, and, 

 towards the outskirts of the ground enclosed, to encourage, 

 with artistic negligence, a wild garden ; thus making the 

 transition from house to garden, and from that to park 

 or open country, easy and gradual. In this way use is 

 made of the best traditions of both the old formal seven- 

 teenth-century gardeners, and those of the ' Natural ' school 

 of landscape designers. The system here mentioned was 

 brought into use again by Repton, but was originally in- 

 vented by Bridgeman. At its first introduction it was very 

 short-lived, being superseded by Brown's ' Natural ' methods, 

 which abhorred formality in every shape. Its present re- 

 vival appears likely to become the permanent principle of 

 all garden design. While specially suitable for large places, 

 there does not seem to be any reason against adopting the 

 system (of course in a proportionate manner) in laying out 

 gardens of a comparatively small area. Such treatment 

 gives, in a thoroughly legitimate way, an effect of size and 

 space, because the garden, instead of being designed more 

 or less formally to its furthest boundaries, becomes, in a 

 sense, part of the landscape beyond. And in even a small 

 wild garden there is opportunity for cultivating many beauti- 

 ful plants which would not seem in place in the more formal 

 parts. To help the effect of belonging to the outside 

 country, sunk fences (also invented by Bridgeman) are used, 

 in large properties, between garden and park. But in small 

 places this is obviously impossible, and the only method of 

 attaining a similar end is to keep boundary fences as low as 

 may be without destroying their use as a screen for privacy 



