Studio: international art (21.1901)

Garden-Making

shrubs for beauty of growth and
colour of leafage. They must
be hard to please who cannot
make gardens to their taste with
such native shrubs, with English
flowers and those old garden
favourites, which, brought here
perhaps by the Romans, have
nearly two thousand years' ac-
quaintance with our climate.
Strong colour and strange form
have no doubt their charm, and
it would be ridiculous affecta-
tion not to do as the Romans
did and try to grow in England
whatever foreign tree or flower
we may fancy, but still the
cactus of the desert and the
bamboo of the jungle should
not make us banish from our
gardens the hundreds of native
beauties, the stonecrops of our
own walls, and the flags of our
own fens.

example of a court-yard garden

A new syllabus has lately been
issued from South Kensington to
, . the Government Art Schools, ap-

parently indicating some change
by g. f. bodley, a, r. a. to be made in future in the

character of the examinations.
This will be welcomed by all

follow that this should be outlandish, that its concerned, for both masters and students have
denizens should be strange plants that could not groaned somewhat under the bondage of the
naturally be English, but have got their growth one that is past. The new syllabus appears to
in the strange atmospheres of swamp or desert. be conceived on broader lines than the one it
Generally it may be observed that the English supersedes, and doubtless will lead to a more
form of a plant is most often the fairest, and that interesting and practical examination. The fan-
the European shrub suits our gardens better than tastic classification of the " styles " of ornament, to
the American or Japanese. And it is clear that which we have become accustomed, has given
the strange plant, which can be hardly acclimatised, place to a more sensible grouping, and in other
that grows unhappily and suffers often, is a poor respects the teaching of the old syllabus has been
exchange for the native robustness, which, at peace modified and made more intelligible. The ideas
with our seasons, has the beauty of a sound con- of the student may possibly be confused by these
stitution. The yew, the box, and the holly, the changes, which will necessitate a revision of the
juniper and the ivy bush, these are evergreens with text-books hitherto in use; but they are changes in
a beauty not less than that of the laurels and the right direction, and will be accepted with thank-
rhododendrons, and I think the lighter flutter of fulness. There is a feeling among students that
their foliage is in better keeping with the hazy theorising about art is of little practical value, but
softness of the English air. And are not English if the study of principles makes the practical
willows against our skies as pleasing as the acacia ? work more intelligent, and saves the student
The broom, the English barberry, and the spindle from pitfalls into which he would otherwise
tree, the English maple and the English black stumble, the time devoted to their study will not
poplar may take their places beside some foreign be time lost.
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