Art Out-of-Doors 
is, in the long run, the costliest and most 
troublesome which can be adopted for the 
adornment of a garden, either large or 
small. But I want to speak simply of the 
artistic value of the formal pattern-bed. Is 
it a beautiful thing, or is it an ugly thing? 
Like almost everything else in the world, 
a formal flower-bed is beautiful or ugly ac- 
cording to whether it is itself well designed 
or badly designed, but especially whether it 
is in the right place or the wrong place. 
Even great intrinsic beauty will not save 
it from condemnation unless it satisfies the 
broad artistic test of fitness. 
Pattern-beds are conspicuously formal — 
that is, symmetrical and rigid — in outline, 
and very often in surface, and conspicuously 
brilliant in color. Therefore, they are in- 
trinsically good when their outlines are 
agreeable to the eye, and when their colors 
are harmoniously arranged ; and they are 
appropriate where rigid, symmetrical lines 
of other sorts accompany them, and where a 
large spot of vivid color does not strike too 
loud a note in the general effect of the 
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