Formal Gardening 
description of genuine landscape - arrange- 
ments — as essentially inappropriate to any 
formal arrangement. 
In a true formal garden the canvas is not 
Nature’s and does not profess to be, while 
in the naturalistic garden it may be Nature’s, 
and, if not, must look as though it might 
have been. In a formal garden the language 
is not a refinement of Nature’s, but a trans- 
lation of it into quite another tongue. In 
a formal garden Nature is not delicately 
humored, but boldly compelled in a direc- 
tion opposite to any of those which she ever 
chooses. A formal garden is not man’s 
transcript of the woodland world, but a 
wholly new conception based on architect- 
ural knowledge and elaborated by architect- 
ural taste. It is as artificial, almost, as a 
building ; for, although its materials are 
Nature’s, so are the stones of a cathedral ; 
and Nature shows us nothing at all resem- 
bling it, either in fundamental idea or in 
finished effect. 
On the other hand, Mr. Sedding has ex- 
actly and beautifully painted such scenes as 
we may see in Central Park. They are not 
