156 ROYAL GARDENS 



thus gently suggesting to a spectator that here it is well 

 to linger a while. This may take the form of a junction 

 of paths, an arbour or a seat. Again, a garden from certain 

 doors or windows of the house may appear so beautiful as 

 to require but little alteration to make it even better. Extra 

 care should be taken and no pains spared to improve these 

 aspects. Planting trees in certain places and cutting down 

 others (only to be done after most serious thought, and then 

 reluctantly) may make a vast change for the better. A 

 knowledge of the main principles of composition in land- 

 scape painting will help a gardener in carrying out these 

 improvements. An arrangement of masses and groups that 

 makes a good picture on canvas will assuredly go far towards 

 turning a comparatively uninteresting view in nature into 

 a pleasing one. Other things — such as beauty of plants and 

 perfection in cultivation — being equal, it may be said with 

 truth that those gardens which afford most frequent oppor- 

 tunities for painting pleasant pictures — with the smallest 

 amount of arranging, leaving out, or ' composing ' — are 

 most satisfying to both eye and mind of a beholder. 



There are, however, two especial ways in which the 

 practice of gardener and painter totally differ. Pictures once 

 finished are seldom altered again, and then only by an 

 intentional act of man ; whereas gardeners have to deal with 

 nature's changing seasons and with plants ever increasing in size. 

 In consequence garden designers are compelled to exercise 

 imagination, as well as knowledge, in planting trees and shrubs, 

 and in arranging colour schemes of flowers for future display. 

 They cannot, like the painter, at once see the effect of their 

 work, but are compelled to try and realise as far as possible how 

 it will look when plants are fully grown. In the case of trees, 

 they must either plant thinly at first or leave special instruc- 

 tions as to thinning out in course of time. Thousands of 

 splendid ' specimen ' trees have been ruined by over thick 

 planting, or by not having growth from encroaching neigh- 

 bours removed in time. And very many promising flower- 

 beds have been turned into disappointments by their colours 



