148 WALL AND WATER GARDENS 



the water is led out again into the small tanks at the 

 angles of the paved space below the semi-circular 

 stairway. From these it is again led away into a 

 series of little channels and falls and then makes two 

 rippling rills by the side of the next flights of steps 

 and lengths of pavement. To return to the Water- 

 Lily tank, its border spaces at the angles of the basin 

 would have raised edges, and would be planted with 

 dwarf flowering Cannas, mostly of one kind and 

 colour. The enclosing walls would be about eight 

 feet high, and as groves of beautiful trees would be 

 in their near neighbourhood, I should wish that any 

 foliage • that could be seen from within the court 

 should be that of Ilex. 



In describing and figuring such a small piece of 

 formal garden, I am endeavouring to show how a 

 good use can be made, in what might be one detail 

 of a large scheme, of beautiful plants whose use was 

 unknown to the old garden builders, for, with the 

 exception of the White Lily, hardly any of the plants 

 just named could have been had. 



Had I ever had occasion to design a garden in what 

 I should consider the most reasonable interpretation 

 of the good Italian style, I should have been sparing 

 in the use of such walled courts, keeping them and 

 the main stairways for the important and mid-most 

 part of the design, as shown in the plan, whether the 

 formal design was placed on the next level below the 

 house, or, as in the case I am contemplating, at a 

 right angle to it, and coming straight down the face 

 of the hill. In this case, wherever flights of steps 



