172 



THE HOUSE AND ITS EQUIPMENT. 



Van Nidek s &quot; Het Zegepralend Kennemerland.&quot; As a rule, in Dutch treillage, ironwork was not so 

 largely used as in French. 



In England, trellis-work remained in fashion with but slight variations from Tudor days until the 

 early part of the nineteenth century. It was first used to surround the flower-beds. In a painting 

 representing Henry VIII. and his family at Hampton Court we see a garden with flower-beds surrounded 



by low trellis-work with intervening 

 posts, upon which, were fixed heraldic 

 beasts bearing vanes and shields with 

 the King s arms and badges, and, 

 judging from the accounts preserved 

 of work done by Henry VIII. at 

 Hampton Court after Wolsey s death 

 in 1530, he must have made use 

 of treillage very largely. We find 

 described 180 posts and &quot; qGoyds. 

 of rayle &quot; painted white and green. In 

 several illuminated MSS. in the British 

 Museum are delightful little pictures 

 of mediaeval gardens giving examples 

 of trellis ; in one a screen about four 

 feet high and an arched gateway, the 

 laths fixed diagonally with square 

 posts ; in another the laths are spaced 

 much wider apart to allow a hedge 

 of roses to be trained. There is a 

 very suggestive example in Didymns 

 Mountaine s &quot; The Gardener s Laby 

 rinth,&quot; published in 1577 ; this shows 

 a square enclosure with an inner 

 parterre protected by a low trellis 

 screen with ornamental pilasters sur 

 mounted by baskets of flowers. Bacon 

 in his essay on the ideal garden does 

 not despise trellis. &quot; For the ordering 

 of the ground ... I leave it to 

 a variety of device. . . . Little 

 low hedges round like welts, with 

 some pretty pyramids I like well ; 

 and in some places fair columns 

 upon frames of carpenters work.&quot; 

 The use of trellis in England was 

 stimulated for a short time by the 

 extraordinary Chinese craze, which 

 followed the publication of Sir 



William Chambers &quot; Dissertation on Oriental Gardening &quot; in 1772. The work created a commotion 

 quite out of keeping with its value, and it is said that, with the exception of the preface, which is in 

 earnest enough, the book is really a solemn joke, intended to mystify the public. Several of 

 the pavilions he constructed at Kew are still remaining, but it is doubtful if any of his treillage 

 could now be found. Examples of treillage will be recalled in many localities now remote and retired, 

 but fashionable in the eighteenth century screens, colonnades, verandahs and porches. In Chelsea 

 and other parts of London that were fashionable in the late eighteenth century we may still 

 occasionally come across some stray examples. 



With regard to the further use of treillage, there are many purposes to which it is admirably 

 suited. It has been used effectively in an eighteenth century house to enclose the well of a staircase. 

 For a conservatory or winter-garden parts of a house that are usually tacked on in so unsatisfactory 

 a manner the material is just sufficiently architectural to add to instead of detracting from the effect 

 of the building, and a sage green treillage design against a plain white background has a pleasing effect. 

 In covering up a blank wall no better means could be found than treillage decoration. In the garden 

 it is suitable for every form of ephemeral structure : for a bandstand, a small garden theatre, a rose arbour 

 or a porch. In many positions where light ironwork is too brittle, treillage might be substituted with 

 advantage ; it is not nearly so costly, can be repaired with ease and any small broken piece restored. For 



j. TREILLAGE PORTICO. 



