DOI Heft:
Nr. 212 (October, 1914)
DOI Artikel:Mawson, Thomas Hayton: What is a garden?
DOI Seite / Zitierlink: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.43456#0352
IVhat is a Garden ?
“JEANNE ”
(See Preceding article)
BY FREDERICK C. FRIESEKE
which he gives the opinions
of various classes of persons
on this very subject, but
while the learned Dean
displays a wonderful know-
ledge of human nature, and
has shown how a garden
can be viewed by different
people from very diverse
standpoints, he has not
attempted in any way to
give that of the man whose
whole life is devoted to the
planning of parks, gardens
and open spaces.
It is from this standpoint
that I wish to look at it in
this article, not so much
with a view to justifying my
own existence as a planner
of gardens, but rather in
order to win the intelli-
gent sympathy of others
for the aims and ideals
of the modern garden-
maker.
One of the most promi-
nent ways in which a
garden may be viewed is
as a setting for the house
which it surrounds and
WHAT IS A GARDEN? BY
THOMAS H. MAWSON
HON. A.R.I.B.A.
Whatever be our work in life, in whatever
sphere our vocation lies, we shall never achieve
success if for a moment we lose sight of first
principles. This is more especially so if we are
engaged on work whioh ministers directly to the
pleasure and even the luxury of others, for then
there is the added danger of extravagance result-
ing from our very desire to please and gratify
the senses. The only corrective or preventive
of such a state of things is constantly to get
back to fundamentals and never for a moment
to lose sight of the root principles which should
guide all our efforts.
It is for this reason that I have chosen for the
title of this article the question, “What is a
Garden ?” Of course, there immediately comes up
to the mind that brilliant passage with which Dean
Hole opens his remarkable book on gardens in
268
which it is to beautify.
Art and nature rudely thrust into juxtaposition
with neither apology to Nature for the intrusion on
her domain nor, on the other, hand, any softening
off of Nature’s rugged picturesqueness to bring
it into keeping with the polished products of art,
sensitive as it must be to the smallest incon-
gruities, can never be aesthetically right and can
never satisfy the artistic mind. If we may so express
it, we use the garden to “vignette” the house on
to the landscape, beginning near the former with
parterres as formal and architectural as it is itself
and gradually proceeding by easy stages to
pleasaunces which are nearly as rugged as untamed
Nature and which owe all their beauty to the fact
that here her handiwork is encouraged. The
accompanying illustrations will show what I mean
more clearly than any amount of description. One
is a view from the garden entrance to the house at
Kearsney Court near Dover, and it is particularly
interesting as it shows a garden the architectural
adjuncts of which are in that most intractable of all
materials brick, thus giving added weight to what I
“JEANNE ”
(See Preceding article)
BY FREDERICK C. FRIESEKE
which he gives the opinions
of various classes of persons
on this very subject, but
while the learned Dean
displays a wonderful know-
ledge of human nature, and
has shown how a garden
can be viewed by different
people from very diverse
standpoints, he has not
attempted in any way to
give that of the man whose
whole life is devoted to the
planning of parks, gardens
and open spaces.
It is from this standpoint
that I wish to look at it in
this article, not so much
with a view to justifying my
own existence as a planner
of gardens, but rather in
order to win the intelli-
gent sympathy of others
for the aims and ideals
of the modern garden-
maker.
One of the most promi-
nent ways in which a
garden may be viewed is
as a setting for the house
which it surrounds and
WHAT IS A GARDEN? BY
THOMAS H. MAWSON
HON. A.R.I.B.A.
Whatever be our work in life, in whatever
sphere our vocation lies, we shall never achieve
success if for a moment we lose sight of first
principles. This is more especially so if we are
engaged on work whioh ministers directly to the
pleasure and even the luxury of others, for then
there is the added danger of extravagance result-
ing from our very desire to please and gratify
the senses. The only corrective or preventive
of such a state of things is constantly to get
back to fundamentals and never for a moment
to lose sight of the root principles which should
guide all our efforts.
It is for this reason that I have chosen for the
title of this article the question, “What is a
Garden ?” Of course, there immediately comes up
to the mind that brilliant passage with which Dean
Hole opens his remarkable book on gardens in
268
which it is to beautify.
Art and nature rudely thrust into juxtaposition
with neither apology to Nature for the intrusion on
her domain nor, on the other, hand, any softening
off of Nature’s rugged picturesqueness to bring
it into keeping with the polished products of art,
sensitive as it must be to the smallest incon-
gruities, can never be aesthetically right and can
never satisfy the artistic mind. If we may so express
it, we use the garden to “vignette” the house on
to the landscape, beginning near the former with
parterres as formal and architectural as it is itself
and gradually proceeding by easy stages to
pleasaunces which are nearly as rugged as untamed
Nature and which owe all their beauty to the fact
that here her handiwork is encouraged. The
accompanying illustrations will show what I mean
more clearly than any amount of description. One
is a view from the garden entrance to the house at
Kearsney Court near Dover, and it is particularly
interesting as it shows a garden the architectural
adjuncts of which are in that most intractable of all
materials brick, thus giving added weight to what I