98 GARDENS IN TPIE MAKING 



or filling a definitely defined space (fig. 24). It is 

 only when they are dispersed in aimless fashion 

 about a lawn that both they and the lawn suffer 

 from the lack of order and of any sense of design. 

 A stretch of lawn is the better for a good back- 

 ground or boundary. To this fact it owes much of 

 its beauty when close to the house or against the 

 retaining wall of a high terrace. Unless it is flanked 

 by gradually rising or falling ground, or a bank of 

 trees, it should be furnished with rectilinear boun- 

 daries, or with outlines based on the curves of a 

 geometric figure, for the eye is directed across the 

 level area of the lawn and beyond ; if, then, the 

 immediate boundary is indefinite and characterless, 

 the lawn itself is depreciated. In such cases a low 

 hedge or wall, or perhaps a stone balustrade with a 

 garden house at each end, is sufficient to give the 

 required definition without checking the view, and the 

 whole effect will be immeasurably improved thereby. 

 Whenever possible, high boundaries — formed of 

 hedges, walls, pergolas, or lofty trees — ^should be 

 given to the secondary lawns in a garden and 

 especially to bowling greens and alleys, tennis and 

 croquet lawns. Should they be situated, however, on 



