44 
House & 
G ar den 
THE BALUSTRADE in GARDEN ART 
How Italy, the Land of Perfect Garden Artistry, Originally 
Created the Balustrade for the Enrichment of the Garden Picture 
H. S. SEYMOUR 
The balustrade is really 
part of the “charming 
art of touching up the 
truth." It is man’s con¬ 
tribution 
( Right ) A combina¬ 
tion of balustrade, post 
decorations, lattice and 
pergolas has here been 
used to create a garden 
corner of unusual inter¬ 
est and artistic merit 
T HE purpose of the “charming art of touch¬ 
ing up the truth” is not to falsify it, but to 
render the truth potent as an inspiration to¬ 
wards a truer enjoyment of life’s truth. 
In making a garden you start with the as¬ 
sumption that something of wild Nature must 
be sacrificed, and something must be super- 
added, and that which is super-added is not 
properly of this real, visible world, but of the 
world of man’s brain. Art may have its dan¬ 
gers, but not in the hands of an artist. So, too, 
it is with successful garden art and with a mas¬ 
ter of its mysteries. 
The velvet lawns, the boast of English gar¬ 
dens, are never perhaps exactly to be attained 
in our own climate although, thanks to our 
scientific seeding and lawmnaking, they are 
skilfully approximated. Italy, land of perfect 
garden artistry, could not take lawns into ac¬ 
count at all. Notwithstanding the English 
The remarkable com¬ 
position of the garden 
below is due entirely to 
the sympathetic hand¬ 
ling of ornaments in 
combination with flow¬ 
ers, trees and lawn 
In making a garden 
you m u st sacrifice 
something of wild Na¬ 
ture and add some¬ 
thing artificial 
