PRACTICAL BOOK OF GARDEN ARCHITECTURE 



could obtain a view of half the Weald of Kent, she 

 described her discovery of the ha-ha: "When I 

 walked out upon the great tufted spaces and ap- 

 proached the point where they joined the park, I 

 found that I had not been misled. The Im-ha was 

 there; and when I saw it I realized (I must confess 

 with some assistance from the head gardener) its 

 utilitarian purpose and meaning. Literally it is an 

 extremely clever arrangement of the landscape 

 gardener of long ago 1 (or one may suppose he was of 

 long ago, as the ha-ha is found oftenest in old 

 places), and it is the device of one who dealt with 

 English gardens attached to broad English private 

 parks. Its raison d'etre is the following : 



"In most private parks, deer, cattle, or sheep are 

 usually pastured, partly for the utilitarian purpose 

 of fertilization and close cropping of the turf, and 

 partly because of their forming a picturesque de- 

 tail. Deer are obviously ornamental, so are fine 

 cattle, and nothing produces a more softly complet- 

 ing effect than a scattered flock of snow-white sheep, 

 straying and nibbling, or resting in groups under 

 spreading boughs of oaks and beeches. From these, 

 of course, the garden must be protected by some suf- 

 ficient barrier, and for this purpose the ha-ha was 

 invented. A feature of most park-surrounded pleas- 

 ure grounds is that it has been a part of the de- 



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