Garden Furniture 341 



assumes that it must be what is needed in her garden. Yet such 

 a seat, placed in the hot sun, is about as comfortable as the gridiron 

 on which St. Lawrence was broiled alive. However, simple, 

 dignified rustic work may be made by the village carpenter out of 

 small cedar logs, which are the most durable, or of arborvitae, or 

 locust, or birch, whose respective merits are in the order named. 

 Good design implies an absence of meaningless ornament. It 

 means lines that suggest strength and comfort. Rustic arbours, 

 trellises, rose arches, bird houses, and garden seats and tables for 

 afternoon tea or breakfast out of doors, rustic frames for woven- 

 wire back-stops on the tennis-court, all suggest informality and the 

 naturalistic treatment of the home grounds. A rustic pergola next 

 a house that is in the severely classic style of Colonial architecture 

 would be an anachronism. But for a simple little country cottage 

 or a house whose architecture is nondescript, rustic garden furni 

 ture may be not only the cheapest but the most appropriate and 

 artistic that can be had. 



Any amateur who can use a saw and hammer can make a 

 rustic arch to grow climbing roses on. A row of arches seen from 

 end to end looks like a continuous bower of greenery. If a garden 

 scene be flat or monotonous there is no better way to diversify it 

 and give it charm than by using arches freely across the paths 

 never an isolated one on a lawn. Quick-growing annual vines will 

 cover them while the permanent climbers are starting. Few vines 

 do well on iron arches which bake in the hot sun. They are top- 

 heavy, unlovely things and are apt to be loosened by the wind 

 in many cases. They rust. But if they must be used for the 

 sake of their strength, try to enclose them in a wooden lattice. No 

 arch should be less than a yard across; a greater width is 

 preferable, especially if a frame be needed through which an 



