SEATS 15 



a useful and not unpicturesque seat may be made at once. 

 Old steps and other debris from the housebreaker can 

 frequently be utilised to good effect, and with a little 

 ingenuity these rustic attempts are often more desirable 

 than the most expensive design. After what I have 

 said, the amateur will not be tempted to try his hand at 

 the branchwork seats or ponderous armchairs, choosing 

 rather to make the use of carpenter's tools as little in 

 evidence as possible. In gardens of any size there is 

 material for numbers of excellent seats, and so long as 

 they are not intended for use on lawns, or in the highly 

 cultivated parts, there need be no desire for complex 

 designs in highly varnished wood or ugly ironwork. 



Before concluding this chapter, it may be well to 

 briefly consider the most suitable positions for the placing 

 of permanent seats, and also how best to furnish them 

 with shelter and shade. Most gardens contain some 

 particular point from which they look their best, or from 

 which some distant view is opened up through a gap 

 in the trees. It may not be convenient to place a seat 

 exactly at this point, but whenever possible the resting- 

 place should command an interesting, not to say beautiful, 

 part of the grounds. Seats are never likely to be much 

 occupied if they only face an uninteresting wall or dull 

 corner, where there is little to attract the eye. Even in 

 the smallest gardens there is some spot on which the eye 

 rests with more pleasure than any other, and, needless 

 to say, the back of the seat should always be directed 

 towards any feature which may be considered unsightly. 

 A blind walk, if such exist, generally requires a seat at 

 the end of it, to form as it were an object for which the 

 path was made. In hilly gardens, seats require to be 

 placed at frequent intervals ; it is hopeless to expect our 

 friends to appreciate our flowers, if we drag them up hill 

 and down dale, without an opportunity of resting for a 

 few moments. Where there is running water, there 



