368 



THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. 



and strongly made, and in our country one objection to stone is met 

 by the use of a mat or a light trellis of Bamboo or split laths of Oak 

 held together by cross pieces and placed on top of the stone. In Italy 

 and France one often sees good stone seats, and there they are not 

 expensive. I have made good stone seats out of steps and other 

 stones which had been displaced in buildings. Stone seats should 

 always be set on stone supports bedded in concrete. A good oak seat 

 is one with strong stone supports, the top being a slab of Oak 

 laid with two bars across its lower side to keep it in place. The 

 top in this form being so easily removed, may be stored away for the 

 winter, as wooden seats should always be. Tree stems of some size 

 and little value may also be cut into the form of seats, and make very 

 good ones for a time, but they soon decay. The common iron seats 

 with cast patterns on them are ugly, but iron seats need not be so, 

 and some old iron seats quite simply made of lath or rod iron were 



Marble slab seat with Oak lattice cover. 



fairly good, and it is not difficult to cover the seat with bamboo 

 trellis-work or matting for the summer season. Some of the French 

 wooden seats are simple and good in form, and, painted a nice carna- 

 tion-leaf green, they look very well. Bamboos, which come in such 

 quantities now in the sugar ships, might be more used for making 

 pretty garden seats. Sometimes old tree stumps help to make useful 

 seats, and the bole of the tree, if cut, makes a very good rustic seat. 

 Where stone is plentiful, as in many hill and other parts, it is often 

 easy to make useful seats out of blocks of stone in rocky places. Of 

 this sort I saw some pretty examples at Castlewellan and the rocky 

 district around. 



THE COVERED WAY may be a charming thing in a garden and 

 make a home for climbers, as well as a shady way, and also form a 

 valuable screen. Shade is more essential in other countries than in 

 ours, and the Italian covered way is often a very picturesque object. 



