CHAPTER VIII 



THE PERGOLA 



Every garden is now wanting a Pergola, that pleasant 

 shape of covered way that we have borrowed from 

 Italy, where it is employed not only for its grateful 

 shade but because it is just the right kind of support 

 and way of treatment for the vines of sunny southern 

 lands. 



We have adopted the name because it is more 

 convenient than the older name of covered alley, 

 which three centuries ago was its nearest equivalent 

 in English gardens. But this was formed on a much 

 more elaborate wooden framework, a kind of un- 

 interrupted arched trellis for the training of some 

 green tree such as Hornbeam or Wych Elm, whose 

 rigid branches had to be closely watched and carefully 

 guided and fixed until the whole covering was com- 

 plete ; after which the chief care was the outer 

 clipping into shape. 



The modern pergola is a more free thing altogether 

 and differently constructed. Upright piers of brick, 

 stone, iron or wood are erected in pairs across the 

 path and a connecting beam is put in place. A 

 slighter top is made with thinner pieces such as 

 larch poles, and the whole is planted with free growing 

 climbers. 



