364 



THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN, 



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 



A garden room, by Harold Peto, Bridge House, Weybridge. 



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 

 ugly things are constructed, though often by going ten yards further 

 one could have crept round the head of the pond by a pretty path, 

 aided, perhaps, by a few stepping stones. 



EARTH-BANK BRIDGES. But there are many cases where some 

 kind of bridge is necessary in pleasure grounds or woodlands where 

 there might be more excuse for the rustic worker's bridge. The difficulty 

 of the light woodwork bridge is that it begins to rot as soon as it is put 



