House Garden 
“ WALL AND WATER GARDENS.” 
flv Gertrude Jekyll* 
A N intimate knowledge of one’s subject, 
accuracy of observation, definite convic¬ 
tions, clearness of expression, the artistic 
faculty, sound common sense—all these make 
a splended equipment for any writer, and all 
these Miss Gertrude Jekyll possesses to the 
full. Her books are always a delight to the 
garden lover, and the appearance of a new 
rarest. It is not that of the prize-taker who 
cares for the largest or the most brilliant 
flowers ; such success she scorns. Her point 
of view is, above all, that of the garden-artist, 
the artist to whom the composition of pictures 
of the greatest beauty is the thing to be 
achieved. Her books thus far have dealt 
less with the question of the general design 
of gardens than with the details of their 
arrangement, and it is this fact that makes 
them so generally useful. To few people is 
RESTRAINED USE OF CREEPERS 
GROUPING OK TREES AND WALL 
one is a fresh pleasure to thousands of readers 
wherever English is spoken and wherever 
gardens grow. Her point of view is a special 
one, and one well worth having. It is not 
that of the garden designer who cares above 
everything for the formal method or the 
natural method ; good she can see in both. 
It is not that of the horticulturist who cares 
only for the rare or the difficult; things 
of common growth, if they be but beautiful, 
arouse her enthusiasm as greatly as do the 
it given to make a garden where there is only 
a field or a hillside, but to many of us comes 
the chance of improving what we already 
have. Just here we may take Miss Jekyll’s 
skillful advice. Would we build a flight of 
rough stone steps, she tells us how to choose 
* “ Wall and Water Gardens,” by Gertrude Jekyll. 
5 y 2 " x 9". XIV, 177 pp., and 132 full-page hall-tone 
plates from photographs. London, Hudson & Kearns ; 
New York, Chas. Scribner’s Sons. 1901. Price, 
$3.75 net. 
27 
