Jekyll, Gertrude: Garden ornament (London: Country Life [u.a.], 1918)

INTRODUCTION

xi.

were considered barbarous and only worthy of abolition. Then, near the middle of the century
came Lancelot Brown, who was widely employed and who continued to sweep away the older
gardens with their parterres and trim hedges. Later in the century he was followed by Repton,
and the same work went on.
Many writers of those days deplore the devastation of the old gardens that had existed for
two hundred years, with their stores of sweet old flowers and medicinal herbs that were then
rooted out and considered rubbish, in obedience to the fashion of the day. Now we justly prize
the comparatively few of these old gardens that remain, whose owners, either too poor to employ
the fashionable landscape gardener or too wise to allow the destruction of their cherished old-
time possessions, kept them unharmed, to the great benefit of the generations to come.
It was not till early in the 19th century that the principle of the Italian garden was again
recognised as desirable, and straight, wide terraces with noble stairways and flowery parterres
were laid out by Sir Charles Barry and succeeding designers. By this time the possibilities of
ornamental gardens were widened by the introduction of many kinds of tender exotic plants, and
the desire to make use of these led to what we know as the bedding system. By the middle of
the century this way of gardening was practised to the exclusion of almost all other horticultural
consideration. The hardy plants of the older gardens were not thought worthy of cultivation
and were banished, and even the smallest places must have their beds of tender plants put out
for the summer months only. Happily a wholesome change again came about, and the last
thirty years of the 19th century saw the old plants restored to favour, and their number largely
increased by the discoveries of botanical travellers. The interest of modern gardens has also
been greatly extended by the use of the flora of alpine regions of the world, and by the
cultivation of the most beautiful of swamp and aquatic plants.
The latest development of garden progress has been brought about by architects having
again, as in the beginning, made themselves responsible for the main lines, at least, of the
garden, and by the designer, having now a knowledge of former styles, being able to look at the
whole matter largely and see what form of garden may best suit a certain place and its
environment. Each place is judged according to its own character and conditions, and upon a
careful consideration of these so is the garden planned. Except in rare cases there is no need to
keep rigidly to any one style; it is, in fact, almost impossible actually to define a style, for
whether a garden is called Italian, French, Dutch or English, each one of these merges into and
overlaps the other, for they all have features in common that vary only in detail or treatment.
But we have always to remember that it is to Italy that we have to look for examples of the
highest development of ornamental features in connexion with garden design. When we
remember the conditions under which the great gardens of Italy came into being, it is no longer
a matter of wonder that they should stand out as examples of excellence, both in general design
and in finished detail. For they were made at a time when there was that extraordinary revival
of learning, and of development in all the branches of fine art that we know as the Italian
Renaissance of the 15th and 16th centuries. And when we read of a giant in architecture such
as Bramante, the creator of St. Peter’s and the Vatican, designing, with Raffaelle, the gardens of
the papal palace and those of other princely houses, and of all the most exalted talent that could
be found being employed upon the gardens of the many palaces and pleasure houses of the
courtly centres throughout the land; of the popes and princes of the great houses of Medici,
Sforza, d’Este and the rest, giving their personal encouragement and pouring out their wealth
for the making of their gardens, one is the better prepared for their splendid design and endless
variety of sculptured ornament. Numbers of the best of these gardens have perished altogether,
and of those that still exist many are in a state of ruin, but enough remain to impress us with
the grandeur of style, and to delight us with admiration for the amazingly fertile invention and
varied manner of treatment of the vast quantity of ornamental detail.
The way out from the villa to the garden usually conformed to the ancient Roman model
of a pillared portico opening on to a wide terrace, commanding some beautiful view of enclosure
or distance. On another face of the house there was a small private garden, closely contained
within hedges of clipped box or ilex, and always a shady grove of ilex, cypress, bay and myrtle.
The site of the villa was usually chosen on a mountain slope, or in such a place as would afford
a bountiful supply of water by natural gravitation, in order to feed the many fountains, pools
and rills whose sound and sight are both so precious in a southern climate. The greatest
sculptors were the designers of the fountains, with their groups of Tritons, of the vases or