2 WALL AND WATER GARDENS 



tread. It is a good rule to make the steps so easy that 

 one can run up and down them, whether of skilled 

 workmanship, as in the present illustration, or rough, 

 as in that at p. 14. There is no reason or excuse for 

 the steep, ugly, and even dangerous steps one so often 

 sees. Unless the paths come too close together on 

 the upper and lower terraces, space for the more 

 easy gradient can be cut away above, and the steps 

 can also be carried out free below ; the ground cut 

 through above being supported by dry-walling at the 

 sides of the steps, and where the steps stand up clear 

 below, their sides being built up free. If for any 

 reason this is difficult or inexpedient, a landing can be 

 built out and the steps carried down sideways instead 

 of up and down the face of the hill. In fact, there is 

 no end to the pretty and interesting ways of using 

 such walling and such groups of steps. 



Where the stairway cuts through the bank and is 

 lined on each side by the dry-walling, the whole 

 structure becomes a garden of delightful small things. 

 Little Ferns are planted in the joints on the shadier 

 side as the wall goes up, and numbers of small Saxi- 

 frages and Stonecrops, Pennywort and Erinus, Cory- 

 dalis and Sandwort. Then there will be hanging 

 sheets of Aubrietia and Rock Pinks, Iberis and Ceras- 

 tium, and many another pretty plant that will find a 

 happy home in the cool shelter of the rocky joint. In 

 some regions of the walling Wallflowers and Snap- 

 dragons and plants of Thrift can be established ; as 

 they ripen their seed it drifts into the openings of 

 other joints, and the seedlings send their roots deep 



