122 GARDENS IN THE MAKING 



the windows, we shall enjoy them equally from the 

 outdoor apartment thus prepared. 



Beyond our main terrace will be others, arranged 

 as far as possible to provide the best standpoints to 

 view the gardens. On the single slope of a hillside 

 our whole garden may have perforce to be a suc- 

 cession of terraces broken here and there by a planted 

 slope, a line of trees, or a bank too steep to level. 

 Such a garden is expensive in its groundwork and 

 walling, but if well carried out it may be made a 

 veritable enchantment. Here is an opportunity of 

 blending the formal treatment with a complete 

 abandonment to Nature ; stone balustrades linked 

 to archways and summer houses can alternate with 

 retaining walls covered with creepers and bushes. 

 Here and there the terraces can be taken some con- 

 siderable length, at other places they will be broken 

 by deep hollows in the side of the hill, dells rilled 

 with trees, undergrowth, bracken and fern. Such 

 a garden effectively conceals the art by which it is 

 produced ; it does no violence to Nature, but re- 

 inforces her own untamed beauty and brings it all 

 within the reach of our enjoyment. 



In some situations the terrace motif can be over- 



