NORTH SHORE BREEZE 
Some Interesting Formal Gardens 
When we consider the subject of 
flower culture in its highest aspect, 
we must agree that the most elabo- 
rate development of the art is found 
in the formal garden. This feature 
has come down to us from antiqui- 
ty; as the modern Italian garden is 
but the direct lineal decendant of 
the Roman villa, where peacocks 
walked the terraces and gold-fish 
disported themselves inthe fountains, 
while among the tastefully grouped 
shrubbery, the finest 
sculptors had embalmed 
in deathless marble the 
flight of Daphne or the 
death struggles of An- 
caeus, torn by his own 
hounds. 
Returning crusaders 
brought to Holland, 
along with tulips, hya- 
ecinths, and _ various 
other bulbs from the 
Holy Land, the theory 
of the Italian garden, 
as seen and admired by 
Dutch crusaders in the 
seaports of Italy. <A 
hint was enough for 
these flower-loving peo- 
ple. Thorough and 
practical in all their 
habits, they soon caused 
their sandy, alluvial 
soil to produce bulbs 
of a quality hitherto 
unknown to floriculture; and the 
theory of the Itahan garden was 
soon adapted to the requirements 
of Holland, forming the basis of the 
Dutch garden of the present day. 
The Italian Renaissance brought 
the formal garden into England, 
about the middle of the fifteenth 
century. Modifications of this model 
resulted in the English tea-gardens, 
-which served as a pattern for our 
Colonial ancestors, when New Eng- 
land was being settled, and gardens 
were being coaxed into bloom amid 
virgin forest and meadow. 
These same quaint old-time gar- 
dens, with their appealing loveli- 
ness have exerted their influence up- 
on the handsome grounds all along 
the North Shore, and many a formal 
garden has kept the touch of sim- 
plicity in the prim, box-bordered 
path. Our earlest impressions of 
beauty are those which persist long- 
est, and our childish memory of 
‘‘Grandmother’s garden’’ insensibly 
affects the ideals of our after life, 
By MARY H. NORTHEND 
Our first thought is that formal 
gardens must of necessity show 
great and depressing similarity. This 
is not true, because each contains 
features distinctly individual, which 
render it unique among its class. 
Unless the garden is an exact re- 
plica, made so by direct intention, 
it can no more be like another than 
two human faces can be exactly 
alike. There is a general similarity 
and what we might call a family re- 
GARDEN AT GARDINER M. LANE’S, MANCHESTER 
semblance, but very little servile imi- 
tation; as the position occupied by 
each differs so widely from that as- 
signed to every other, that location 
alone would render repetition not 
only undesirable, but actually im- 
possible. Each formal garden is 
a rule and a pattern for itself, and 
could hardly be copied to advantage. 
Certain features appear and reap- 
pear in endless variety that always 
escapes monotony. The feature 
which was once termed an arbor, 
has now been transmuted into a per- 
gola, but has suffered nothing by the 
change. According to the lay of the 
land and to the juxtaposition of 
buildings, it may occupy center, en- 
trance, or any side, with equal ap- 
propriateness. So it is with shrub- 
bery and the trellises; so with the 
sunken garden and lily-pond;so even 
with the fountain, whose location, © 
more than any other one thing, can 
make or mar the beauty of the whole 
enclosure. The great central foun- 
tain, in varied shapes and forms, has 
been the principal theme of so many 
a beautiful garden, that we had al- 
most grown to believe that the cen- 
ter was its acceptable place. This 
is not true. Change the shape and 
size of the fountain, and it is more 
ornamental in another place. It can 
stand in a nook or corner, among 
the shrubbery, with an effect fully 
as artistic as that reached by the 
great central location of the Italian 
scheme. 
An example of in- 
dividuality where 
original and_ striking 
effects are produced, 
as just now suggested, 
by means of unusual 
grouping, is found in 
the formal garden of T. 
Jefferson Coolidge at 
Magnolia, Massachu- 
setts. It is reached 
from the somewhat 
higher level of the en- 
trance by means of 
short flights of stone 
steps. In the center of 
this sunken space, one 
would naturally look 
for the stereotyped 
fountain of Italian 
marble, but one looks 
in vain. Its place has 
been usurped by a stone 
sun-dial, brought from 
England by the owner, 
~and the usurpation constitutes a 
ostidains surtsve[d 
All around the dial lie formal beds 
of blooming plants, which are 
changed as the season changes, so 
that they may be always in fullest 
florescence. Nor is the fountain 
wholly wanting. As we stand by 
the sun-dial and _ look across 
the brilliant paterres, we see a flight 
of stone steps, guarded upon each 
side by a crouching leopard.  Be- 
hind these, and against the wall, 
stands a handsome fountain, sup- 
ported by strangely-carved dolphins, 
and surmounted by a statue of Nep- 
tune armed with his trident. Gran- 
ite, steps, below the fountain, lead 
down to a little pool beneath, where 
grow rare lilies. The note of indi- 
viduality is sharply struck in the 
whole plan of this arrangement, and 
the fountain, in its unusual but 
thoroughly appropriate. location, is 
still the dominant thought. 
_ The summer home of Secretary of 
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