286 



ENGLISH PLEASURE GARDENS 



No impor- 

 tant innova- 

 tions. 



The mate- 

 rial of 

 hedges. 



Archways. 



suckle, ivy, jasmine, and climbing roses are used to cover 

 arbours and form festoons and garlands. 



No novelties worthy of especial mention have been 

 added to the architectural or sculptural ornamentation 

 of the parterre. Classic statuary and classic or Renais- 

 sance designs for fountains are better models than any 

 recently erected, while Elizabethan or Jacobean archi- 

 tectural features are superior to those evolved nowa- 

 days. It is strange how seldom a new and satisfactory 

 note is struck in any of these directions. 



The boundary, when not formed by a wall, usually 

 consists of a hedge. The best and most durable of 

 these barriers are constructed from evergreen holly, 

 yew, tree box, or cotoneaster, and from deciduous 

 trees and shrubs, like privet, sweetbrier, beech, horn- 

 beam, thorn, and mirobella plum. To give the garden 

 hedge a more ornamental appearance than if it enclosed 

 a field or meadow, standard trees are sometimes intro- 

 duced at regular intervals and allowed to rise above the 

 rest with their tops clipped in balls or pyramids. In 

 other cases the summit of the hedge is clipped in the 

 shape of battlements as at Old Place and Holme Lacey, 

 or surmounted by quaint figures as at Sudeley Castle 

 near Cheltenham and at Brome Hall in Norfolk. 



The prettiest openings through the hedge are made 

 in the form of arches sometimes flanked by pilasters and 

 overtopped by balls, obelisks, or a pointed pediment. 



