364 THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. 



or earwigs. It is in connection with the house, or part of its lower 

 storeys, that garden shelters, loggias and the like may be most 

 effectively made ; of this we see examples at North Mymms and 

 Bramshill, and where they give shade or a " garden room " as part of 

 the house they are a real gain. 



BRIDGES. Few things about country houses and gardens are worse 

 in effect and construction than the so-called "rustic work." It is 

 complex and ugly as a rule, its only merit being that it rots away in 

 a few years. It is probably at its worst in garden chairs, " summer " 

 houses, and rustic bridges. An important rule for bridges is never to 

 make them where they are not really needed, though the opposite course 

 is followed almost in every place of any size where there is water. 

 On rustic bridges over streams, natural or otherwise, there is much 

 wasted labour. A really pretty bridge of a wholly different sort I 

 saw once with the late James Backhouse near Cader Idris on a 

 farm which had a swift stream running through it, to cross which 

 some one had cut down a tree that grew near, and had chopped the 

 upper side flat and put a handrail along it. Time had helped it 

 with Fern, Lichen, and Moss, and the result was far more beautiful 

 than is ever seen in more pretentiously " designed " rustic bridges. 

 It is not, however, the far prettier effects we have to note, but the 

 advantage which comes from strength and endurance. It looked very 

 old and Moss-grown, and no doubt it is there now, as the heart-wood 

 of stout trees does not perish like the sap-wood of the " rustic "- 

 work maker. The sound oak tree bridge was the earliest footway 

 across a stream, and it will always be one of the best if the sap 

 wood is carefully adzed off. It would not please those, perhaps, 

 for whom there is nothing good unless it has a pattern upon 

 it, but it is a strong and beautiful way. Foot-bridges these 

 should be called, as they are, of course, too narrow for any other 

 purpose, but with a good oak rail at one side the tree bridge is 

 distinctly better than a bridge of planks. Where stones are plenti- 

 ful, stone put up in a strong, simple way is the best to make a 

 lasting bridge, and a simple structure in brick or stone is better 

 in effect than any rustic bridge. Where stream beds are rocky 

 and shallow, stepping stones are often better than a bridge, though 

 they cannot be used where the streams cut through alluvial soils 

 and the banks are high. 



Some of the worst work ever done in gardens has been in the 

 construction of needless bridges, often over wretched duck-ponds 

 of small extent. Even people who have some knowledge of 

 country life, and who ought to possess taste, come to grief over 

 bridge building, and pretty sheets of water are disfigured by bridges 

 ugly in form and material. For the most frivolous reasons these 



