House & Garden 
THE DESCENT TO THE FLOWER GARDEN 
GARDEN WALK 
/ 
In the Sprague gardens one feels this 
quality almost as much as that other of the 
masterly expression ot enduring principles 
through modern and consistent forms. The 
illustrations 1 have used in this first paper are 
largely of The Flower Garden and therefore 
must of necessity emphasize the point 1 make, 
for here more than almost anywhere else, the 
mingling of art and nature must be perfectly 
done or the result is hopeless failure. 
From The Lower Terrace one sees nothing 
of the flower garden, except a masterly piling 
up of brick walls and stone balustrades with 
The Pergola and casino cresting the whole, 
and from this level one may ascend by Gar¬ 
den Steps , so coming out at once at an angle, 
in the midst of the flowers themselves. 
From the level carpet of The Upper Ter¬ 
race backed by the delicate columns and slen¬ 
der lattice-work of the pergola that continue 
the architectural lines out to The Garden 
Walls , The Descent to the Flower Garden is 
by an half-dozen stone steps opposite a broad 
straight walk that leads through many flowers 
directly to The Casino , its slender columns 
reflected always in the still water of The Ba¬ 
sin. T his flower garden is certainly a very 
wonderful piece of composition. There is 
just the right proportion between the archi¬ 
tecture, the decorative accessories, the open 
spaces, the water and the plants themselves. 
The Garden Pergola is an exquisite piece of 
design, but 1 must confess to a certain sense 
of dissatisfaction in the case of the casino : 
there is a certain late Italian bareness, as of a 
kind of makeshift, in the upper part that does 
not harmonize with the faultless Greek of the 
columns. The strong, dark silhouette of the 
central arch is exceedingly fine, and in spite 
of the single criticism—the only one to be 
made on the flower garden—the casino 
serves perfectly both as a culminating point 
for the garden, and as a vantage ground. 
Nothing could be more perfect in its way 
than the view of 'The Garden from the Casino , 
everything falls exactly in its proper place, 
and one only feels the need of some slim 
Greek girl, or better still, a girl of Pompeii, 
5 
