DOI issue:
No. 90 (August, 1904)
DOI article:Scott, Mackay H. Baillie: A cottage in the country
DOI Page / Citation link:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.26962#0166
A Cottage in the Country
Passing into the water-garden, with its central
stream and paved margins, and turning to the left,
an important vista reveals itself on reaching the
opposite extremity, where one looks through the
herb-garden, kitchen-garden, and well-court; and
walking up this path back towards the house, one
passes again the two cross vistas. Such a principle
of arrangement is necessarily more interesting than
the mere disposition of winding walks, which never
fulfil the promise they seem to convey of some
vision of the beyond. The defect of the formal
treatment often lies in a certain barrenness, a lack
of mystery, and those surprises and dramatic effects
of light and shade which are such essential attributes
of the garden. Open flower gardens are best ap-
proached through dim and shady alleys, and every-
where broad and open sunlit spaces should be con-
trasted with the shade of pergolas and embowered
paths. In passing through these enclosed ways
one loses all conception
of the garden scheme till
at the intersection of a path
one suddenly perceives
through vistas of roses
and orchard - trees some
distant garden ornament,
or, perhaps, a seat or
summer - house; and so
one becomes conscious of
a scheme ordered and
arranged to secure definite
and well-considered effects.
As in a dramatic enter-
tainment, apartments of
the garden, full of tragic
shade, are followed by open
spaces where flowers laugh
in the sun; and by such
devices the art of man ar-
ranges natural forms to ap-
peal in the strongest way to
the human consciousness.
In such arrangements
one of the most important
considerations is the proper
subordination of certain
parts as backgrounds. The
modern gardener is apt
to look upon such features
as yew hedges in the
garden as mere archaic
affectations, and he points
to many modern flowering
shrubs as being more , dr. henneberg’s house professor hoffmann, architect
preferable than the sombre yew. As a matter of
fact, the yew maintains its place chiefly on account
of its unequalled background qualities. Roses and
lilies seen in a setting of flowering shrubs are still
roses and lilies, to be sure, but they have lost much
of the beauty of their effect they might have dis-
played if relieved against the dusky yew, which
enters into no competition with their brightness.
And so, to a great extent, the more permanent frame-
work of the garden may be regarded as a sort of
stage and setting for the passing pageant of the
flowers.
It will be noted that the garden scheme under
consideration includes no lawn or mown grass, and
this omission is chiefly due to the desire to obtain
in a cottage not constantly occupied a garden which
will not demand that constant attention which the
presence of mown grass entails. The orchard which
replaces it will yield the beauty of its blossom and
124
Passing into the water-garden, with its central
stream and paved margins, and turning to the left,
an important vista reveals itself on reaching the
opposite extremity, where one looks through the
herb-garden, kitchen-garden, and well-court; and
walking up this path back towards the house, one
passes again the two cross vistas. Such a principle
of arrangement is necessarily more interesting than
the mere disposition of winding walks, which never
fulfil the promise they seem to convey of some
vision of the beyond. The defect of the formal
treatment often lies in a certain barrenness, a lack
of mystery, and those surprises and dramatic effects
of light and shade which are such essential attributes
of the garden. Open flower gardens are best ap-
proached through dim and shady alleys, and every-
where broad and open sunlit spaces should be con-
trasted with the shade of pergolas and embowered
paths. In passing through these enclosed ways
one loses all conception
of the garden scheme till
at the intersection of a path
one suddenly perceives
through vistas of roses
and orchard - trees some
distant garden ornament,
or, perhaps, a seat or
summer - house; and so
one becomes conscious of
a scheme ordered and
arranged to secure definite
and well-considered effects.
As in a dramatic enter-
tainment, apartments of
the garden, full of tragic
shade, are followed by open
spaces where flowers laugh
in the sun; and by such
devices the art of man ar-
ranges natural forms to ap-
peal in the strongest way to
the human consciousness.
In such arrangements
one of the most important
considerations is the proper
subordination of certain
parts as backgrounds. The
modern gardener is apt
to look upon such features
as yew hedges in the
garden as mere archaic
affectations, and he points
to many modern flowering
shrubs as being more , dr. henneberg’s house professor hoffmann, architect
preferable than the sombre yew. As a matter of
fact, the yew maintains its place chiefly on account
of its unequalled background qualities. Roses and
lilies seen in a setting of flowering shrubs are still
roses and lilies, to be sure, but they have lost much
of the beauty of their effect they might have dis-
played if relieved against the dusky yew, which
enters into no competition with their brightness.
And so, to a great extent, the more permanent frame-
work of the garden may be regarded as a sort of
stage and setting for the passing pageant of the
flowers.
It will be noted that the garden scheme under
consideration includes no lawn or mown grass, and
this omission is chiefly due to the desire to obtain
in a cottage not constantly occupied a garden which
will not demand that constant attention which the
presence of mown grass entails. The orchard which
replaces it will yield the beauty of its blossom and
124