576 JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



remembered that the informal garden is generally more picturesque 

 and inviting during winter than a formal garden, and if this advantage 

 is to be retained the chief views should not be monopolized by the 

 reservation of large areas for flowers, as these necessarily present a 

 bare and desolate appearance in winter. Flower-gardens should be 

 arranged in positions which appear to be subordinate to the planting. 

 For these plenty of suitable situations can be utilized. 



There are opportunities for symmetrical arrangements on the 

 terrace, and borders can be made against terrace walls. Large 

 masses of flowers may be arranged with shrubs in the background, 

 the effect being particularly good where grass alleys wind between 

 plantations bordered by flowers. 



Flower-beds may be placed suitably at the intersection of 

 paths. Special gardens — rose gardens, rock gardens, water gardens, 

 and other similar features — may be constructed in sheltered, but 

 not shady, parts of the grounds. Bulbs are most effective when 

 planted in large numbers in grass and glades ; the kitchen garden 

 should have its flower borders, and if it is encompassed by walls 

 or hedges there is often the chance of using the outside of these 

 boundaries as a basis for some enclosed garden. The informal 

 garden offers opportunities for the introduction of as many flowers 

 as one could wish, and does not merely represent a collection of trees 

 and shrubs, which, naturally, are not sufficient to satisfy most people's 

 idea of a garden. 



The majority of the large gardens in England can scarcely be 

 described as either strictly formal or informal. The kind of garden 

 recognized as distinctly English is perhaps expressed by a happy 

 assimilation of all styles in a harmonious fashion. 



The historical records of gardening deal mainly with different 

 types of the formal garden. The most famous are perhaps to be 

 found on the hillsides of Italy. They provide many lessons in 

 imagination and architectural detail, and in bold treatment of various 

 situations. 



Another historical example of the formal garden which has exercised 

 great influence, not only on the design of formal gardens in England, 

 but on the history of English gardening, is that associated with the 

 great French garden architect, Le Notre. The style he perfected 

 came to grief in the hands of men of less imagination, and the 

 tedium produced by constant repetition of design facilitated the great 

 revolution of informal landscape gardeners in this country a century 

 and a half ago. 



Nevertheless, the design of many of the older formal gardens of 

 Great Britain still shows traces of the style of Le N6tre. The 

 world-wide influence he must have exercised is evident in operations 

 under my own control at the present moment, for I am dealing in 

 three foreign countries with gardens of which the original design is 

 attributed to him. The general principle of each of these gardens is 



