370 



THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. 



character for supporting climbers, just as the Itah'ans often support 

 their Vines on living trees kept within bounds. Such trees as the 

 weeping Aspen, weeping Birch, and fruit trees of graceful, drooping 

 forms, like some Apples, would do well, and would be worth having 

 for their own sakes, while through the trees hardy climbers could 

 freely run. 



BOATHOUSES. — Among the things which are least beautiful in 

 many gardens and pleasure grounds is the boathouse. Our builders 

 are not simple in their ways, and are seldom satisfied with any one good 

 colour or material to make a house with, or even a boathouse, but 



A thatched summer-house. 



every kind of ugly variegation is tried, so that harshness in effect is 

 the usual result, where all should be simple and quiet in colour, as it is 

 in boathouses on the Norfolk Broads made of reeds and rough posts. 

 The simpler the better in all such work, using local material like Oak, 

 which comes in so well for the posts, and reeds for the roof ; but the 

 simplest brickwork and brown tiles would be far better than the con- 

 trast of ugly colours which the modern builder both in France and 

 England delights in. The place, too, should be carefully chosen and 

 the building not conspicuous. It is well to avoid the cost of railway 

 carriage in the making of simple structures like boat-houses, and also 

 carting, which is such a costly matter in many districts. It is best to 



