ARTHUR A. SHURTLEFF 



is considered merely as an approach, a place to 

 walk through and not a garden to linger in, it is 

 essential to make it simple enough in arrangement 

 so that it can be grasped in its entirety at the first 

 glance. 



This fore-court, placed here to conform with 

 the colonial style of the house, is an interesting 

 free interpretation of an old colonial garden form. 

 The front doorway garden, as it was found in old 

 New England and is still sparingly seen in conser- 

 vative communities, is a form derived from the 

 English fore-court, of which the English doorway 

 garden is a humbler, more intimate, and less formal 

 expression. In these colonial examples, the front 

 fence stood near the road and the side fences ex- 

 tended back to the corners of the house. It was, 

 therefore, rectangular in shape, taking its dimen- 

 sions from the width of the house and the distance 

 it was placed back from the road. At first, the 

 enclosure of the colonial fore-yard had a purely 

 practical reason for existence. It preserved from 

 the inroads of cattle a little clearing where the 

 housewife could grow a few flowers. But soon it 

 became something more. There was an attempt 

 to create a little air of formality for the approach 

 to the front door. There was a nice striving to 



41 



