The art and practice of landscape gardening

Preface

My father, the late Edward Milner, as the colleague for many years of Sir Joseph Paxton, was concerned in all the later achievements of Landscape Gardening carried out by that distinguished man ; and from 1850 until 1884 himself designed and completed many of the finest works of the kind that have ever been produced, not only in this country, but in various notable places on the continent of Europe. By this prosecution of his art in such extended practice, he attained a purely exceptional experience, the opportunity for which ripened his artistic powers ; and without question he was enabled to illustrate by his works a steady advance of the art, which is essentially English. On my part, as the colleague of my father, and as successor not only to his profession but to many fruits of his experience, I too have had ample opportunities to practically illustrate the art that I love and the work that I delight in. Impelled by that love, I have endeavoured to realise the principles on which I have been led to base the artistic conceptions of my work, and the points of practice by which it may be carried out. I do not intend to advance any fashion, past or present, in Landscape Gardening, but to set forth my own opinions and my own practice, however incompletely that may be done.

H. E. M.

Dulwich Wood, S.E., June, 1890.

Contents

I'AGE

PREFACE v

INTRODUCTION i

Introduction

To define the properties of an art must always be an opiniative endeavour, since conceptions of beauty are varied and ever varying, and the means whereby art can express what is beautiful, appeal — with their fascination or their fuller force of conviction — rather in the measure of the recipient's appreciation than of the giver's power.

The function of fine art is to exhibit beauty — that ineffable beauty which can stir in the human breast emotions claiming for our better nature kindred with higher things. The architect rears a temple or a cathedral in which effects of light and the combination of lines create a feeling of awe that compels an ignorant and careless man to speak in a whisper ; the sculptor or the painter records in form, or simulated form and colour, that conception of beauty with which the artist has been gifted ; the composer gives being, by musical tone, to some subtle emotion of our nature that has yearned dumbly within us, till the touch of divine genius gives it distinctness of existence. The poet makes beauty articulate to our reason, seeking that path to the heart. But there is another form of art yet. There are expressions of beauty to which we are all subject, and to an appreciation of which we are most of us educated. We are always under their influence. In a thousand forms Nature herself puts forward her charms, and the influence of these is, in degree, upon us all, arousing emotions, or enriching those we possess. It is difficult to define the working and result of such emotions ; moreover, the wealth of their sweetness and grandeur would be lessened could we impose on ourselves a definite conception of their extent. Nature appeals to us in multitudinous ways, in particular as well as in general effect : in the mute appeal of the violet, as well as in the majesty of the oak ; in light and shade ; in the sheen of water ; in the infinite variety of the formation of the earth's surface ; in the disposition of foliage both in colour and outline ; in combination of different features, and in constant development. Simply to accumulate and crowd together natural productions, in themselves beautiful, may give us collections, but not the desired result. If we endeavour to define the art of landscape gardening, it may be stated as the taking true cognizance of Nature's means for the expression of beauty, and so disposing those means artistically as to co-operate for our delight in given conditions.

It is not the author's intention by this book to give another history of landscape gardening ; his intention is rather to record the present development of the art and his own relation to, and practice of it. The love of natural picturesqueness is of very modern growth in England. Its rise was coincident with that of the modern novel in literature, and of genre painting in art. Little more than a century has, with the aid of conducing influences, ripened the feeling to a passion. Peace and augmenting prosperity have been necessary conditions for advancing the art of gardening in this country, since that time when safety made it

INTRODUCTION. 3

possible for the wealthy to live outside towns in unfortified houses. Up to the middle of the last century all progress made was in fetters of artificiality, formal and imitative in respect of the art features. The garden contiguous to the house was laid out for utility or for pleasure with a purpose of distinguishing it from the surrounding scenery ; and it was natural that the same feeling which gave the character to the house should also prevail in the garden. Every possible appearance of uniformity was bestowed on the enclosed ground. Regularity and order contrasted with Nature's aspect outside. Admiration was courted by means of regularity, and by marking to the spectator the labour, design, and expense bestowed on the garden. Moreover, in any extension, duplication of lines was aimed at rather than the introduction of a new design. But, as the eighteenth century came on, the newer influences were strengthening ; causes produced effects, which in their turn became causes of advance, and with the appreciation of Nature's beauties in scenery, the art that was to minister to the better feeling became more definite in its tendency, until the present development of the Art of Landscape Gardening — truthfully and distinctively styled English — has been reached. Our love of natural beauty has been greatly fostered by the modern systems of easy travelling, by peace at home and by the stupendous accretion of private as well as of national wealth. It is startling to note in how narrow a strip of our history, these conditions have been established completely. The Victorian period has these facts on its records.

Up to the commencement of the eighteenth century, landscape gardening was mostly the work of architects ; and it was characterised by formal art features, by intricacy of design in parts, and by treatment of the ground as a plane surface. That ideal of beauty resulted in a feeling that Nature had been pushed, and coerced, and sometimes dragged to an effect. Nature, it is true, is always at work, and, as time goes on, clothes a neglected grave with beauty, or makes an unsightly rubbish heap lovely with her gifts ; and, in like manner, she gives venerableness to magnificentlygrown trees in stately parks, which compel admiration not entirely due to the design of the planter. So natural beauty combines with historical associations to give many old gardens an indescribable charm especially valued in this land. Next, the influence of pictorial artists was felt. They strove to modify the old constrained practice by the imposition of an almost equal artificiality of picturesqueness. The resulting effect, as now appreciated, at all events, is a feeling of unrest and stiffness. Nature seems still to work in fetters. I shall endeavour now briefly to investigate some of the conclusions which, in my estimation, form bases for a better practice of the art, the method of which I have sought to describe in this book.

Water, by its constant gentle action, or by its sweeping directed force, has, without question, been a principal agent in forming the natural surface of our earth. It has scooped out valleys and modified the hills ; in one place leaving their rounded sides and tops covered with forest, in another bringing down loose earth till the hill-tops and slopes show clear and perfectly curved outlines ; or, again, leaving bare the rocks standing out in grand abruptness. With the subsidence of the water, wide grassy valleys have been formed ; wherein are seen long vistas of lawn running up till they are lost in the obscurity of the forest. Then, through the middle of the hollowed and widening fertile valley, runs the stream, that spreads into the lake, giving an expression of the water's subsidence in the restricted action of the stream or the subsided force of the more placid water. Therefore it is right, in forming a restricted landscape, to bear in mind Nature's grand agent in the formation of her greater land-

INTRODUCTION. 5

scapes, wherein are presented endless varieties of form, of line, and of colour, far-stretching even plains rich with herbage, hillsides and tops covered with foliage, as well as swelling downs with their vast sweeping curves. These forms of beauty may exercise their fascination on the most unlearned, or appeal with augmented force to the most cultivated human nature. It is the province of the Landscape Gardener, as I understand the art, to appreciate the multitudinous means whereby Nature expresses her beauty, and so to use those means artistically as to arrange their force for producing the delightful result he desires to achieve. To servilely copy Nature's forms is to incur the pettiness of mere reproduction in little, with the penalty of a falsification. To utilise her means and to let the spirit of her works influence our art in every practicable way, is the true practice of the art of Landscape Gardening.

And can we deduce principles of art from the effect of Nature's picturesqueness, and the details of her action ? A loving student of her, with an artistic spirit, does derive some principles ; but he feels more than he can describe of them. He comes to know the truth that he who feels best the infinitude of Nature's expressions of beauty, receives their influence without consciousness of the process. By observation of mankind, he notes how certain mental processes become active when reason and the finer sympathetic spirit, that we call feeling, are pleasantly excited by testimony of the eye. He classifies such phenomena and calls them laws. The artist, after all, can do little more than generalise the truths in this wise he thinks he has discovered ; yet they are the means by which he works, as with a gentle and practised method he designs to bring the sweet influences to bear, with as little evidence as may be of the shaping hand. For illustration, I shall very briefly indicate some such deductions that seem to me to afford guidance for the artist of Landscape Gardening.

Nature seldom presents a straight line in any of her forms, unless in the seeming regularity of an oceanic horizon, or the smaller line of water surface. A straight line is the product of art, for even the apparently upright line of the Parthenon columns results from a delicate curve. Nature presents in her broad effects and graduated detail, an infinity of curvilinear features. There is beauty in contrast of form ; but appropriateness of natural position is a condition of its value in the scene. As in Nature, water plays such an important part in the formation of the land, so in our circumscribed landscape, the feeling that pervades all Nature should prevail in our treatment of the ground. A calculated shadow on a lawn is a resource of value for the artistic use of natural effect. The extended surface of down land shows exquisite gradation of light and shade ; but not the true vastness of space to the unpractised vision. The eye seeks to estimate distant features, and insensibly gains a standard of measurement from intervening objects, and, when these are absent, most frequently miscalculates distance. Lines or objects placed in a direction going from the line of vision, make the space so marked appear longer, whilst lines running across it, make the space appear less distant. Grass, clothing the ground surface, has an expression of stability and repose ; it seems to be immovable ; and in colour it illustrates the tint of foliage to which it forms a base and background. Trees and shrubs, by the contrast of foliage, give variety, and a gradation of colours may promote the idea of distance. They should clothe the hill-tops and slopes in masses of irregular outline. A sky-line of trees should not be continuous, but should be broken. A valley appears deeper by not being planted, as a hill appears higher than it really is by being planted to its summit. Single trees emphasize falling ground, and they, like the shadowy regions of a wood, conduce to a sensation of mystery, subtly stimulating imagination. They induce an idea of

INTR OB UCTION. 7

possible shelter that bestows pleasurable sensations. Falling ground appears shorter, whilst level ground at the base of a hill, as also rising ground, seems longer than it in reality is. The idea of spaciousness can be artificially promoted, particularly by the breaking of continuous lines and hard boundary lines, and by providing various objects for the eye to count, just outside the direct line of sight. Vision invariably travels down a hollow, or depression, or through any opening. Thus the idea of distance may be created, and the eye be conducted to realise what is desired. By directing the vision to distant beauties of landscape, they may be brought into the artist's plan. Trees especially serve to frame a particular view. In every situation a beyond implies discovery, and affects the imagination. The area is circumscribed of which we can take cognizance too readily and completely ; imagination is then confused or frustrated. The beauty of water, in motion or still, is of universal acceptance. The created character of a water-feature must be consonant with the surrounding land ; for fitness to surrounding conditions is a measure of beauty to both. A lake expresses spaciousness ; but much of its charm is due to its outline. A river expresses action. Trees or high banks on the edge of water diminish its extent when seen from the opposite bank, and make it dull. An opening in the trees, or the lowering of a high bank, make a gleam of light, and the length in that direction appears greater. The ground immediately around a dwelling, forming the artificial base on which it rests, should be treated formally, and the site and aspect of the house will, in a measure, determine the relation to it of the contiguous ground. The approaches should be direct, convenient, and not strained.

Such deductions as the foregoing may serve to illustrate some of the resources of the Landscape Gardener, and by their paucity in relation to the infinite developments of beauty in the nature around us, demonstrate the impossibility of defining the range of this art. Its conceptions are more frequently to be felt than described ; and the attempt to deduce from them a set of fixed principles must be as futile as an endeavour to completely systematise the ever varying yet constant manifestations of beauty that we encounter in the vast field of Nature's operations which adorn the surface of our country. Nature is the great exemplar that I follow. The method I adopt I have endeavoured to describe in the several divisions of this book.

THE APPROACH.

The approach through an enclosed estate to the house upon it, is one of the most pressing matters to settle in laying out a residential property, and this feature often determines the choice of a site for the structure. The principal points for consideration are, firstly, the place for entrance from the public road, and next the route thence, requiring not only artistic treatment but convenience of approach, and of access to the house, the offices, the stables, kitchengarden and the farm, and care that on the route such good views, or objects of interest that may exist, shall be displayed.

It may be taken as an axiom, that the approach to a house should always appear to be direct, and any deviation from such directness should not only arise from, but should also be made to appear to arise from, some decided obstacle. By direct, is not meant straight. A curved line of road is generally to be preferred, because it is more easy of construction, and because more varied views can be obtained, since it can follow in great measure the natural contour of the ground. A straight drive should be used only when an imposing, or somewhat pretentious building is at the end of it. It is only allowable in flat country, or where some special object has to be attained. If the ground is very undulating a straight road is out of character with its surrounding. Of course, when a venerable and stately avenue of old trees has to

c io THE ART AND PRACTICE OF LANDSCAPE GARDENING.

be dealt with, a different treatment is taken. Curves should be long and easy. The side slopes of a curved drive can be more easily and freely dealt with than the sides of a straight drive, because they may be steep or flat, as desired. An uniform slope is unnatural. It is advisable in deep cuttings to bring forward prominent points which may support planting ; or, if in a suitable country, rocky promontories may be made or shown ; and between these projections the spaces should be judiciously excavated, so that the vision following up the hollows thus made will be carried to the ground beyond, and the observer will not realise the fact that an artificial cutting has been introduced.

The natural slope of earth surface varies ; but, as a rule, it is not wise to make any slope steeper than 2:1, save at exceptional points, where there is planting or rockwork. At such points of abrupt declivity the turf should, if necessary, be pegged down. The gradient of a curved drive can be varied, following within limits the natural undulation of the ground. It should not be made with a series of gradients of certain ratio meeting at angles ; but the gradient should rise or fall imperceptibly, with a line as even, continuous, and graceful as that of a horizontal drive. At the entrance from the public road, and also where the route reaches the house, the gradient should be nearly level, and the line straight, and it is well to keep the gradient level at crossings, or turns to various points. The gradient of a good drive should not be steeper than one in fourteen, though one in nine is a road over which a carriage may be driven with safety. A drive should not run parallel to the public road with the mere purpose of lengthening the course, or seeming to prolong it. When the house is at a comparatively short distance from the public road, on a much higher level, and the object is apparent to overcome the difference of level, then the resource may be adopted. It is to be remarked

THE APPROACH. n

that a curved line looks much straighter on paper than when worked out on the ground. If there is a continuous gradient on a continuous curve, with a dip in the gradient beyond which the drive is again seen, that part of the drive in the hollow should be either straight, or decidedly curved ; otherwise, when seen from either end, the line appears to be broken.

A straight approach requires very careful treatment. It is artificial in character, and requires, as well as admits of, artificial expression. In undulating or on falling ground it should, if possible, be made at right angles to the slope of the hill. The gradient should be very even, and much flatter than that used for a curved line. Unless it is very even, although a graceful gradient curve be used, the observer looking up such a drive will imagine it is not straight. The slopes, both where cut and where artificially constructed by filling, are better if they are formal and regular ; not with alternate cutting and filling as on a railway, but with uniformity of resource.

The width of drives is ruled by the character and importance of the traffic they are to take. A breadth of nine feet suffices for the passage of one carriage ; where two carriages may meet, the road should be fourteen feet wide. The above is a minimum dimension, such as may be resorted to when the ground is flat, and on either side of the road is grass, to which a foot passenger can retire, or on to which even a carriage could in case of need be turned ; but in ordinary cases it is better to give eleven or twelve feet for the single drive, and sixteen to eighteen feet for the double road. Economy sometimes rules in regard to these dimensions. The width of drives is frequently determined not by the exigencies of the traffic, but by the relatively important character of the route. Thus a drive to the principal entrance of the house would be fourteen feet, or sixteen feet or eighteen feet, while that to the stables or offices ten feet. Or as at Beechy Lees the drives are as shown on the sketch I. A drive with a sharp curve must have a greater width than is necessary in the straight.

As any one enters on an estate from the public road, he always looks around when just inside the gate, and perhaps, unconsciously, records an impression. It should be a matter of careful study, then, to give to the entrance as much realisation and promise of beauty as may be feasible. The difference between a dusty, untidy road outside, and the shaded, well-trimmed drive within the gate, should be made pleasurably apparent ; and, as far as practicable, a view of the outlying grounds, a stretch of park, or the inner foliage of a wood should be visible through an opening, or be seen in broad expanse for the moment as the visitor passes rapidly on. At all cross roads and turning points, the same inspection occurs, and of necessity the opportunity is most favourable when the visitor alights at the entrance to the house, and contemplates the scene — the near view, or the distant outspread prospect — that he may afterwards look at so often, but never with more zest than when he receives, perhaps hardly noting it, his first impression.

Drives that leave the main route for unimportant points, should be curved as soon as may be convenient, so that the eye may not be tempted to explore them, and give to them a certain importance to the detriment of the main drive. It is preferable that the drive rise gradually to the house throughout its whole course ; but if that be not practicable, it is important that it should have an ascending gradient at least during the last stretch, when the front entrance is in view. If the natural surface at this point be higher than the ground level of the house, it should be lowered so that there may be a rise, however slight, for however short a distance, at this termination of the road. Until the drive be made thus to rise, a straight direction should not be adopted, and a direct view

THE APPROACH. 13

of the house should be prevented by planting, or by embankment, so that the idea that the house is in a low position may not be aroused. The drive should not skirt the garden, or overlook it. It is sometimes difficult to comply with the former condition ; but the latter can generally be met by sinking the carriage way, by raising a bank along the gardens, vand by planting. At Chatsworth, though a straight drive, which is much used by the public, skirts the west garden front, yet it is completely shut off from the gardens by a high wall retaining the terrace gardens.

The treatment of either end of the main carriage drive is of much importance. Taking first that nearest the house. The direction and level of the approach, and the character of the architectural features, will rule greatly the plan that can be adopted for the facilities of carriage traffic, which must be provided here. For most ordinary purposes the turn {see Plan) is sufficient, but examples of different methods are shown. The gravelled plain in front of the porch should not be less than thirty-three feet for a small house ; but forty to sixty feet are requisite where two or more carriages may stand. It is well at places of importance to arrange this end of the drive, so that waiting carriages may circulate. There must be a sufficient space on each side of the porch, and in line with it, to admit of carriages drawing up close to the door, and to progress beyond it without too abruptly turning. The entrance to the gardens should not be from the drive, but from the house, as, for example, in the turn to a small house. (See Plan.)

In choosing the place for, and forming, an entrance from the public road (about the artistic effect of which something has already been said) advantage may be taken of a turn in the highway, if the position be suitable, so that by adapting the line of the public road, and continuing it to the entrance gates, much importance may be given them by making it appear that the highway leads i4 THE ART AND PRACTICE OF LANDSCAPE GARDENING.

through them. [See Plan, fig. A, and sketches, p. 9.) The entrance gates may be formed at the junction of two roads as at B ; or where a cross road — even a minor one — comes on to the main road as at C, or the entrance can be set back as D ; or as E, where the gates are set sufficiently back from the public road to allow a carriage to stand clear. To a straight drive the entrance should be imposing ; and though any of the forementioned examples may be adopted, yet it is well that the treatment of this work should be formal in character. (See Plan, fig. H.) The gates as well as the lodge should be at right angles to the drive, and belong to it rather than to the public road. The line of boundary outside the gates should also be straight for, at any rate, a few feet, before any turn is begun.

The lodge should be so placed that the windows in the living rooms command a certain length of both the drive and the public road.

In placing such an entrance to the estate it is well, if possible, not to make it at the boundary of the property. One consideration in fixing the position should be the direction of the principal traffic likely to pass to it ; the position of the town, the village, the church, of notable places or objects of interest. It is moreover advisable to plan the entrance, if it can be, at the foot of a hill or rise in the public road, and not part way up an ascent, or at the top of it. A drive that goes off fairly level ground at the foot of a hill, always promotes a feeling of more repose than is to be experienced in the positions just mentioned.

The actual work of making drives is dealt with later under the heading of General Formation.

SITE OF THE HOUSE AND OF THE GARDENS.

There are certain leading considerations that should rule our determination in choosing the site for either a house or a garden, which considerations may almost be taken as independent of taste, and more in the nature of necessary conditions. They may be defined as (a) aspect — relation to the points of the compass; {b) prospect — relation to the surrounding view ; (c) natural shelter ;

(d) convenience in regard to the approaches, and in respect of communication with stables and out-offices, as well as with the gardens ;

(e) the levels of the land ; {/) the formation of the subsoil. Each of these questions will be treated in turn.

(a). — The forms of houses, and the position of the principal rooms in them, are so varied that it is difficult to put clown a rule that shall be absolute for all, even in the matter of aspect. In the southern and midland counties of England, however, there is no doubt that the main line of the house should be S.E. If the sides of a house form a square, and the front be to the S.E., it would, as the sun in summer rises N. of E., and sets N. of W., have sunlight on all its walls ; whereas if the front of the house were placed due S., the N. face would lack sunshine, while that to the S. would probably have too much. The effect of such conditions on the comfort of the house is enormous and constant, and should never be undervalued. A house thus placed enjoys favourable conditions that are important, but are not very readily recoo-nised. The sun exercises its fullest force between i and 2 p.m. At that hour the rays fall at an angle on the wall, and so with an indirect impact that saves much oppressive heat, without undue loss of illumination ; in fact, the extremes of heat and cold are modified. In the northern counties, it may be advisable to give the house a more southern aspect when it is a consideration to gain full advantage of the shorter period of sunshine, and particularly when a series of the best chambers have to be brought under the influence.