4 THE BOOK OF GARDEN FURNITURE 



and as such deserving of little consideration. Seats, 

 statuary, sundials, and trellis- work are, in good hands, 

 just as much the making of the garden as, in bad, they 

 are the marring of it. What often serves to impress a 

 particularly good piece of garden landscape upon our 

 memory ? Is it not frequently a small arbour, an old- 

 fashioned seat, or quaint sundial, which forms the central 

 object, giving requisite finish and point, and connecting, 

 in one harmonious whole, scattered masses of flower and 

 foliage ? Seeing, then, the prominent positions which 

 these objects are likely to occupy, it is more than ever 

 necessary that they should be of considerable merit, a 

 reflection of the owner's good taste, and not his lack 

 of it. 



Unfortunately most English gardeners depend upon 

 the ironmonger or general dealer in garden requisites for 

 their " furniture," and, without wishing to condemn this 

 class of goods as altogether bad, in nine cases out of 

 ten they are nothing less than eyesores in the average 

 garden. I shall have occasion, later on, to refer more 

 particularly to these rustic atrocities, summer-houses 

 and arbours, the ugly galvanised arches and trellis, and 

 seats in crudely designed cast iron ; for the present, I 

 would urge gardeners to have nothing to do with them. 

 Cheap they seldom are, of ornamental features there are 

 none; and as for utility, there are few which tend to show 

 that such an idea ever entered the heads of their builders. 

 There are a few firms to whom we owe a debt of grati- 

 tude, in that they have had the courage to depart from 

 the traditions governing this class of garden ornament, 

 and have set to work to evolve new and artistic designs, 

 and have carried them out in suitable materials. But 

 these are sadly in the minority, and the advertisements 

 of the cheap dealers in horticultural requisites plainly 

 evidence the scope of their business, and the extent of 

 their yearly output. Each and every style of garden 



