70 JOURNAL OF THE KOYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



sake, prompting those quaint fancies which help to enhance the charm 

 and discount the utilitarianism which really lay at the root of all. 

 Necessity and pleasure thus walked hand in hand, the former, by its 

 " directfulness," giving the cue to the sturdy formality and strength of 

 purpose which so appeal to us now. The natural result was a happy 

 blending of pleasure and use, until, by the simple process of evolution, the 

 original uses were no longer required, and therefore not understood and 

 were misapplied, and the way then stood open for the chaos and futility 

 of Capability Brown and his evil school. 



Some slight consideration of the original cause of the development of 

 the garden leads us clearly to the fact that the garden was necessary for 

 the home life, that fruit, flowers, walks, turf bowling-greens, shelter and 

 seclusion were the natural outcome of the household requirements, and 

 so house and garden became wedded as it were ; each dependent on the 

 other, with logical purpose governing both. Each thus gaining from the 

 close and living contact with the other, they finally became that perfect 

 whole which we can doubtless conjure up before our eyes. The grey 

 stone or purple brick weather-beaten house, the trim well-kept walks, the 

 velvet turf, the checkered play of light and shade on grass, yew, and 

 gravel ; the quaint old-world flowers, coming and going again and again 

 year after year in their old familiar places beside the stained and lichened 

 wall, with its kindly shelter from the northern winds ; the sundial with 

 its happy phrase, perhaps some little sunken garden, secluded and more 

 sacred than the rest, with the plash of its cool fountain ; last, but by no 

 means least, the generous fruit garden and orchard, delighting equally in 

 sight and taste. But no words of mine can adequately describe the limit- 

 less possibilities which are to be found. The result we know — that happy 

 blending of house and garden which is the outcome not merely of chance 

 and time, but of steadfast purpose and well-trained organised design, born 

 in the days when gardening was a living craft worthy to be followed, loved, 

 and understood by the noblest minds. 



In effect, then, these three — seclusion, usefulness, and pleasure — are 

 what I conceive to be the principles underlying the old tradition and 

 examples. 



The questions we must next ask ourselves are these : Do these principles 

 still hold good ? Are the same necessities still in existence ? Can we, 

 after making due allowance for the lapse of centuries and rapid growth of 

 modern requirements, still say that the same factors should form the 

 basis of good garden design in this twentieth century ? 



At first sight it may appear that as " the old order changeth, yielding 

 place to new," so we must search for new essentials upon which to found 

 the lines of a logically designed modern garden ; but a little consideration 

 will, I think, show that in reality almost all the old conditions should 

 apply at the present time. 



First, seclusion. I should say that in these days of publicity, of 

 interviewers, photographers, cheap magazines, and general social scramble, 

 never was the quiet calm of the garden more desirable. The greater 

 number of houses, and the greater chances of being overlooked by near 

 neighbours, serve to make strongly defined boundaries, which will act as 

 screens, even more imperative than ever ; and thus we have ample excuse 



