CHAPTER I 



GARDEN FURNITURE 



BEAUTIFUL flowers, well-kept lawns and noble trees 

 these do not make good gardens, and this fact must be 

 my excuse for writing these pages. In striving after 

 artistic effects, mere cultural skill will avail us nothing, if 

 we do not possess that faculty for grouping and arrange- 

 ment which is inseparable from the skilled gardener. 

 Further, we must be prepared to expend a considerable 

 amount of thought and care on those objects of garden 

 furniture, which have come to be regarded either as 

 necessities or as desirable adjuncts to the well-kept 

 pleasure grounds. It is more than possible to completely 

 spoil an otherwise good effect by the introduction of 

 unsuitable or ugly summer-houses, seats, sundials, and 

 statuary ; and I shall endeavour briefly to indicate the 

 styles suited to various gardens, the manufacture of those 

 which can be made without skilled assistance, and the 

 positions which each may occupy to the best advantage. 



In early times, buildings and decorations in stone and 

 wood were much more freely employed in gardens than 

 they are to-day, and vast sums were spent in ancient 

 Rome and Greece on these costly objects. Varro's 

 garden at Casinum contained, among other costly features, 

 bridges, a large aviary, and open-air temples. During the 

 Augustan age, statues and fountains appear to have been 

 introduced ; and among the wonders of Pliny's famous 

 Tusculan gardens were summer-houses in dazzling marble, 



