The Flower Garden . 
173 
houses and plan their own grounds, so it is often impossible to realize distinct 
ideas of gardening taste. We cannot have any great varieties of surface when 
we take up our residence on a flat plain, nor can w r e command a slope to the 
south where the house is already built on a slope to the north. But w r here 
the choice can be made, it is undoubtedly of the first importance that a 
garden should slope to the south, that its surface should be diversified, that it 
should admit of some kinds of water scenery, and be surrounded either with 
fine open country or picturesque woods, or with some objects, natural or 
artificial, on which the eye may rest with pleasure when the walks themselves 
are exhausted, and we have arrived at the boundary of the domain. 
Then as to the laying out: every person w r ho really loves a garden has some 
idea of the plan and style that will be most pleasing to himself, and a 
predetermined opinion as to the extent of space to be devoted to the several 
departments of wood and water, roads and lawns, flower borders, shrubs, and 
the culture of edibles. The nature of the ground itself must always be first 
considered in relation to such matters, but whatever the arrangement, every, 
thing must conform to certain principles of taste, or the most sincere efforts 
will be wasted. 
Two important matters should be kept in view from the first. We must 
endeavour to develop the natural features of the place, and we must 
subordinate every detail to the production of a complete effect. Every contrast 
should help to conserve and strengthen the harmony of the whole, the details 
should mutually assist each other in creating a succession of pleasing cares, 
anxieties, and occupations, and a varied scene of ever-changing delight. It 
should be borne in mind by every cultivator of taste in gardening, that a 
garden is an artificial contrivance, it is not a piece scooped out of a wcod, 
but in some sense a continuation of the house. Since it is a creation of art, 
not a patch of wild nature, so it should everywhere show the evidence of 
artistic taste in every one of its gradations, from the vase on the terrace to 
the “ lovers’ ” walk in the distant shrubbery. True nature is not to be shut 
out of the scene, but nature is to be robed, dressed, and beautified, and 
made to conform to our own ideas of form and colour; and while we delight 
in some amount of picturesqueness, we are to consider art rather than nature 
as the basis of every arrangement. 
The gardens of the Romans were magnificent in their splendour. Their 
pleasances combined all the graces of the mcdern terrace, the display of 
architectural and sculptural beauty, the freshness of well-kept lawns divided 
