ARRANGEMENT 109 



But what do I see, as the mist clears? A 

 garden which, Hke a thousand others, has obeyed 

 the command of imperious Fashion, — Away with 

 your borders, your mounds, and your clumps ! 

 Away with walks and with grottoes, nooks, corners, 

 and light and shade ! Down with your timber ! To 

 the rubbish-heap with your lilacs and almonds, your 

 laburnums and blossoming trees ! Stub, lay bare, 

 level and turf ; then cover the whole by line and 

 measure with a geometrical design.^ Do you require 

 examples ? Copy your carpet, or the ornaments on 

 your pork-pie. Then purchase or provide — for the 

 spring. Bulbs by the sack ; for the summer. Pelar- 

 goniums by the million ; for the winter, baby Ever- 

 greens and infant Conifers — brought prematurely 

 from the nursery into public life, like too many 

 of our precocious children — by the waggon-load ; 

 introducing among the latter, narrow little walks of 

 pounded cockle-shells, broken glass, gypsum, brick- 

 dust, sheep's trotters, etc., etc. 



I am well aware that the geometrical system, 

 especially when it is combined with terraces, stair- 

 cases, balustrades, and edgings of stones, is very 



^ With wise instructions from the best (in my opinion) of our 

 landscape gardeners, Mr. Marnock, and with very kindly help from 

 my friends Mr. William Robinson and Mr. Ingram of Belvoir, I 

 restored and reclothed the plot of ground about my home, which was, 

 and is once more again — a garden. 



