280 THE SHAKESPEARE GARDEN 



tempests shall not be harmful to plants, or fruit, if 

 the speckled toad, enclosed in a new earthern pot, 

 be buried in the middle of the garden." 



A modern authority says : 



"While no hard and fast rule can be made, a gen- 

 eral practice is to cover seeds with double their own 

 depth of soil under glass and four times their own 

 depth of soil when sowing in the open ground. To 

 protect seeds from cats, bury several bottles up to 

 the neck in seed bed and put in each bottle a tea- 

 spoonful of liquid ammonia." 



IV 



The Gateway 



The gate entrance was always important in Tudor 

 times. The gate, usually of pierced ironwork, but 

 also of wood artistically cut into balusters, was hung 

 between two square piers of brick or stone, about 

 ten feet apart. Each pier was surmounted by a stone 

 ball, with or without necking, unless heraldic lions, 

 bears, wyverns, or other emblems of the owner were 

 used. The piers were, as a rule, two feet square 

 and nine, or ten, feet to the top of the cornice. Gate- 

 ways were also set in walls, and little gates were set 

 in hedges, or flanked by ornamental shrubs. 



