DESIGN 
169 
find himself or herself altogether out of sympathy with 
four, and quite involuntarily prepared to take sides 
with the fifth. Spanish warrior, English adventurer, 
Dutch burgher, Puritan reformer and peaceful Quaker, 
all made their gardens in this fair and fragrant land 
within the same century; and the hand of each writ 
large upon the earth its signature. Which will you 
have ? 
Which is the best—which offers most*? These, of 
a certainty, are the instant demand; but be not de¬ 
ceived. Your final choice is not going to be deter¬ 
mined by the answers, even though the questions are 
deliberated over and well weighed, and a scrupulous, 
judicial attitude is maintained. No indeed; it is some¬ 
thing within that has already leaped and claimed its 
own, even as the deliberating and weighing are going 
on, which decides the matter. Deep in the heart of 
hearts of every one of us there is this correspondence 
with our own which nothing can shatter; and all 
choosing against it, let me say in passing, is wrong 
choosing, be the choice never so plausible and well in- 
tentioned. “Which is best?” means therefore, which 
is best for the asker; “which offers most?” which 
offers most to him who has raised the query. 
Taken in the largest sense, design—as applied to 
an estate and gardens—means simply plan, refined 
and perfected until it expresses beauty as well as con- 
