OUT OF DOORS. 
129 
is just as easy to pull down as it is difficult to build up ; and 
Mr. Robinson would have had ample precedent had he con- 
tented himself, as many reformers have done, Avith destroying 
the faulty structure, leaving the erection of the new building 
to others. But this Avas not his Avay ; and on the ruins of 
“bedding-out,” and among the ashes of the bygone geraniums, 
calceolarias, and lobelias, he has laid the foundations of the 
“mixed border” and the “ Avild garden.” He has restored, in 
fact, the best traditions of the English garden, Avhich had come 
Branch of Hawthorn. 
doAvn to us from the days of Bacon, Gerard and Parkinson, and 
Avhich still happily lingered, waiting the time of their restoration, 
in many a country manor, and above all in the little floAver-plots 
before the cottage door, Avhere the early violets and aconites led 
the Avay to the daffodils, snoAvdrops and polyanthuses, and so on 
to the full pageant of Flora’s lovely and fragrant train. 
In this delightful Flower Garden the owner and the gardener 
may take equal interest. Mr. Robinson gives tAvo-thirds of his 
book to an alphabetical enumeration and description of the best 
