CHAPTER X

conclusion

The disregard of conditions which the land-
scape gardener shows in dealing with the
house and garden is even more conspicuous
in his treatment of public grounds. For some
inscrutable reason the laying out of public
grounds is usually left either to the engineer
or to the landscape gardener. The engineer is,
no doubt, a man of ability and attainment, but
there is nothing in his training to qualify him
to deal with a problem which is in the main
artistic ; and the landscape gardener makes it
his business to dispense with serious design.
The result is that our public spaces are seldom
laid out on any principle at all. For instance,
a London square is an entirely artificial affair.
It is bounded by rectangular blocks of buildings,
and straight roads and fences. It would only
be reasonable to adhere to this simple motive;
but hand this over to the landscape gardener
and he will at once set to work to contradict