FLOWER GARDEN AND PLEASURE GROUND HOUSES, ETC. 



365 



Ugly things are constructed, though often by going ten yards further 

 one could have crept round the head of the pond by a pretty path, 

 aided, perhaps, by a few stepping stones. 



Earth-bank Bridges. — But there are many cases where some 

 kind of bridge is necessary in pleasure grounds or woodlands where 

 there might be more excuse for the rustic worker's bridge. The difficulty 

 of the light woodwork bridge is that it begins to rot as soon as it is put 

 up, and we find that, even when done in the best way, with larch or oak,, 

 and by old-fashioned workmen, who get as much simplicity of form 

 and endurance out of it as they can, the years pass so rapidly and 



A garden room, by Harold Peto, Bridge House, Weybridge. 



British rain is so constant, that rot and decay are all we get out of it, 

 and very often such bridges fall into such a dangerous state before we 

 have time to repair them, that animals often get into danger from them. 

 A much better way is the earth bank, with a drain pipe through, 

 and this suffices where there is a slight, steady, or an occasional flow 

 of water, and also to cross gorges or depressions. We can find the 

 earth to make it on the spot, and by punning, and in the case of 

 larger work of this kind, carting over it, we can get it to settle down 

 in one winter to the level we want it, and soon have an excellent and 

 permanent way across. Such banks will support any weight, and are 

 as free from decay as the best stone bridge. One of their best points 



