The Livable House 



it interesting, and good examples of such combinations are given 

 in the chapter on garden architecture. 



Stone walls laid up dry have the advantage of taking on an air 

 of age more rapidly than other kinds, and there is no doubt about 

 the fact that age, as far as gardens are concerned, is desirable. 

 The crevices between stones offer hospitality to moss and rock 

 plants, which soften the appearance of the wall and make it as 

 much more interesting than a plain surface as is a printed page 

 than a blank sheet. 



Sometimes old stone walls, which in former davs marked 

 cornfields from pasture land on the farms of our grandfathers, 

 have been successfully moved with their mosses and lichens to 

 contribute the dignitv of age to a new garden; but the classic 

 example of the man who purchased at a handsome price an old 

 moss-covered barn, had each stone wrapped separately and con- 

 veyed to the distant spot where he proposed to build his house, 

 only to lose these painfully acquired mosses because they did not 

 like their new home in the sun, offers a warning to those who 

 would beat Nature at her own game. 



The steps which retaining walls necessitate are not always the 

 pleasing features of the garden it is possible to make them, prin- 

 cipally because thev are apt to be too small. Sizes which look 

 well in the house are not roomy enough outdoors, for the scale of 

 garden work should be much larger than that of house work. A 

 room eighteen by twenty-eight feet is considered a fairly large 

 room, but a garden eighteen by twenty-eight feet would scarcely 

 divide into two flower borders with a path between. Similarly 



[44] 



