170 OLD-FASHIONED GARDENING 
venicnce. Certain underlying and obvious principles 
of convenience are of course common to all design— 
that is, to plan, in its primitive simplicity. These 
principles form foundation lines, or what among pro¬ 
fessional designers would be called the skeleton of 
the pattern. And every pattern must have them. In¬ 
deed they are so important to it that even in the most 
intricate and seemingly difficult finished product, the 
trained designer can trace these skeletons; and the 
total number of them which it is possible to frame 
is astonishingly low. So in the garden’s pattern they 
are not many, we may be sure. 
In the older design there was no thought of 
elaborating upon them. Childish simplicity pervades 
the ancient Spanish garden; it speaks eloquently in 
the almost total lack of any form except the obvious 
one which the boundaries of the place suggest, as also 
in the naive variations in divisions that are intended 
to be uniform. There is an uncompromising brusque¬ 
ness in divisional lines, too, which is childlike. And 
the attitude of irresponsibility, carelessness, indiffer¬ 
ence and indolence which was responsible for the un¬ 
tidy condition so characteristic of Spanish gardens, is 
similarly childlike. Nature was prodigal, as the 
Spaniard knew her—so why should man be careful? 
To-morrow, to-morrow—even as little children pro¬ 
crastinate—always to-morrow! 
