TRANSCRIBER’S NOTE:
—Obvious print and punctuation errors were corrected.
—Table of Contents items do not refer to chapters or section, but tothe arguments treated on the pages referred to.
—The transcriber of this project created the book cover image usingthe front cover of the original book. The image is placed in the publicdomain.
THE
ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN.
THE
ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN
WITH ILLUSTRATIVE NOTES
BY
HENRY A. BRIGHT
AUTHOR OF “A YEAR IN A LANCASHIRE GARDEN.”
London:
MACMILLAN AND CO.
1881.
The Right of Translation and Reproduction is Reserved.
LONDON:
R. Clay, Sons, and Taylor,
BREAD STREET HILL.
PREFACE.
It is just a year ago since this Essay on “TheEnglish Flower Garden” was published in theQuarterly Review.
It was written with a twofold object: to givein the smallest compass an outline history ofEnglish gardens, and to show once again whatmakes the true charm and happiness of a garden.Many—perhaps too partial—friends have urgedme to reprint this article. They have remindedme that, when the immediate circulation of anyone number of a Review has ceased, its articlesare virtually lost and buried, and they assure methat there are readers who may not have alreadyseen, and who would yet care to read, this Essay.I hardly know how this may be, but I do know[vi]how very much I am indebted to the proprietor ofthe Quarterly for his great kindness in allowingme the opportunity of this reprint. Should thislittle book succeed in retaining the friends thatA Year in a Lancashire Garden was happyenough to make, it will indeed be fortunate. Ithas been to me a matter of no little surprise(as, naturally, of pleasure) to find from thegenerous notices of the Press and from numerousprivate letters from owners of gardens, to whomI am entirely a stranger, that the views I haveexpressed as to the necessity of a reform in ourgardens are very widely held. So long as agarden is only regarded as a means for displayingmasses of gay colouring, half the delightand all the real interest of it are gone. It isonly when we learn to make friends of individualplants, and recall their history and associations,that a garden becomes a pleasure for theintellect as well as for the senses. But I donot wish to carry my opinions to any extravagantlength. It is Voltaire, I think, whosays that “a man may have preferences but[vii]no exclusions,” and I certainly would excludenothing that is good in the present system.Bedding-out is occasionally very effective andsometimes necessary; an