Formal Gardening 
symmetrical forms of neighboring build- 
ings. 
But most often no taste at all has pre- 
sided over their disposition, except a greedy 
love for conspicuous plants as such ; and 
then they are hideous as well as inappro- 
priate. They are huddled little conglomera- 
tions of trees and showy shrubs, and of bits 
of grass splashed with chromo - like flower- 
beds, and speckled with exotic plants which 
have recently been brought from the green- 
house and loudly confess their homesickness 
for tropical surroundings. Most often we 
feel that the owner’s or the gardener’s one 
desire has been to get as much variety as he 
could within his narrow limits. As a result 
he has entirely lost the unity which alone 
can give relief and value to variety. His 
garden has no coherence, no character ; it is 
a place in which plants are grown, but not 
a place which as a whole makes any impres- 
sion upon the eye, except to confuse and 
pain it. Nowhere better than at Newport 
can we understand what a French artist 
meant when he said that most people’s idea 
of gardening is “the cleaning up of spon- 
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