DOI issue:
Division I: Great Britain
DOI article:Mawson, Thomas Hayton: On the designing of gardens
DOI Page / Citation link:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.19999#0051
THE DESIGNING OF GARDENS
" With thought and love companions of our way ;
Whate'er the senses take or may refuse,
The mind's internal heaven, to shed her dews
Of inspiration on the humblest lay."
Behind all the forms of nature there is a meaning and a
function, and those who calmly ponder and study her, learn in
secret how to grasp the essential that is hidden behind the out-
ward form. The poet, the painter, the musician, and the architect
all admit that the foundation and inspiration of their respective art
is in nature, yet are assured that by inward selective conceptions
of her beauty and her strength, they can call forth from the
uninitiated and unlearned a bond of common praise and admiration
of her mysteries.
Leaving out of the question the other arts it may be asked,
What is the character of the lesson that the architect and the
designer of gardens learn, store, and seek to teach ? They claim
the right to clothe and adorn utility with the grace of appropriate-
ness. All the arts and skill and culture put together can never
make nature, and the true artist is he who recognises that his art is
art, and not a substitute for, or a regeneration of, nature. There-
fore it is out of place to lavishly reproduce natural forms deco-
ratively and place them in competition with nature.
Artists the world over, in defining art in the simplest words,
agree that " Art is arrangement." We may add that its study
" is not a matter of asking for recipes from this or that school, this
or that national or racial art, this or that period, classical, renaissance
or modern ; true art scorns all staid and starched traditions" ; on
the contrary, it is the acquiring ot certain simple principles that
underlie all art of all times. In art we are dealing strictly with
the mental and emotional faculties more or less developed in each
individual. And the true artist and architect is he who builds
up his theme or scheme according to these emotional responses,
according to the manner he sees, feels and stores them himself.
No words can utter these responses, they are uttered alone by craft
and by art.
Take a tree, an oak by preference, because of its decided
individuality. We note how its leafage bears an appropriateness to
the branch, both in form and scale, and the branches in turn to the
trunk ; from the tiniest to the mightiest part with its sinister
expression of storm-resisting strength. The emotions are stirred by
both the form and the function. Here are many sources of
inspiration ; we may use its leafage form as a basis for applique to
rococo plain surfaces, not a laborious transcript of it, but by well
vi
" With thought and love companions of our way ;
Whate'er the senses take or may refuse,
The mind's internal heaven, to shed her dews
Of inspiration on the humblest lay."
Behind all the forms of nature there is a meaning and a
function, and those who calmly ponder and study her, learn in
secret how to grasp the essential that is hidden behind the out-
ward form. The poet, the painter, the musician, and the architect
all admit that the foundation and inspiration of their respective art
is in nature, yet are assured that by inward selective conceptions
of her beauty and her strength, they can call forth from the
uninitiated and unlearned a bond of common praise and admiration
of her mysteries.
Leaving out of the question the other arts it may be asked,
What is the character of the lesson that the architect and the
designer of gardens learn, store, and seek to teach ? They claim
the right to clothe and adorn utility with the grace of appropriate-
ness. All the arts and skill and culture put together can never
make nature, and the true artist is he who recognises that his art is
art, and not a substitute for, or a regeneration of, nature. There-
fore it is out of place to lavishly reproduce natural forms deco-
ratively and place them in competition with nature.
Artists the world over, in defining art in the simplest words,
agree that " Art is arrangement." We may add that its study
" is not a matter of asking for recipes from this or that school, this
or that national or racial art, this or that period, classical, renaissance
or modern ; true art scorns all staid and starched traditions" ; on
the contrary, it is the acquiring ot certain simple principles that
underlie all art of all times. In art we are dealing strictly with
the mental and emotional faculties more or less developed in each
individual. And the true artist and architect is he who builds
up his theme or scheme according to these emotional responses,
according to the manner he sees, feels and stores them himself.
No words can utter these responses, they are uttered alone by craft
and by art.
Take a tree, an oak by preference, because of its decided
individuality. We note how its leafage bears an appropriateness to
the branch, both in form and scale, and the branches in turn to the
trunk ; from the tiniest to the mightiest part with its sinister
expression of storm-resisting strength. The emotions are stirred by
both the form and the function. Here are many sources of
inspiration ; we may use its leafage form as a basis for applique to
rococo plain surfaces, not a laborious transcript of it, but by well
vi