GARDEN DESIGN. 



569 



for the arrangement of such gardens arises so frequently from the 

 methods in practice in large ones that an understanding of the 

 principles in force in the latter is a good guide to follow. 



Time will not permit me to prolong my remarks. I hope in a 

 succeeding lecture to enter more intimately into details of garden 

 arrangement, and it would be unsatisfactory to disconnect what I 

 wish to say. I will therefore conclude by reading some delightfully 

 satiric verses by Knight, with reference to the particular question 

 of an approach to the house. The lines were written one hundred 

 and twenty years ago, but they contain the gist of the matter and 

 offer several lessons quite worth remembering to-day : — 



" When o'er the level lawn you chance to stray 

 Nature and taste direct the nearest way ; 

 But, when you traverse rough, uneven ground, 

 Consult your ease, and you will oft go round. 

 The best of rules are those of common use ; 

 Affected taste is but refined abuse. 

 First fix the points to which you wish to go, 

 Then let your easy road spontaneous flow 

 With no affected turn or wasteful bend 

 To lead you round still further from your end, 

 For, as the principle of taste is sense, 

 Whate'er is void of meaning gives offence ; 

 'But in your grand approach,' the critic cries, 

 ' Magnificence requires some sacrifice. 

 As you advance unto the palace gate, 

 Each object should announce the owner's state, 

 His vast possessions and his wide domains, 

 His waving woods and rich unbounded plains.' 

 He, therefore, leads you many a tedious round 

 To show the extent of his employer's ground, 

 Climbs o'er the hills and to the vales descends, 

 Then mounts again through lawn that never ends. 

 But why not rather at the palace gate 

 Hang up the map of all my lord's estate ? 

 Than give the hungry visitors the pain 

 To wander o'er so many miles in vain. 

 For well we know this sacrifice is made 

 Not to his taste, but to his vain parade, 

 And all it does is but to show combined 

 His wealth in land and poverty in mind." 



