PRACTICAL BOOK OF GARDEN ARCHITECTURE 



desire for elucidation as keen as was my own. Con- 

 cerning the original meaning of the word ha-ha I do 

 not feel that I have yet been satisfactorily enlight- 

 ened. Dean Reynolds Hole, in one of his famous 

 garden books, gives this story as the solution of the 

 mystery: 'An individual being brought without 

 warning to the edge of the first specimen of the bar- 

 rier, on suddenly finding it yawning at his feet, cried 

 out in delighted amazement, Ha-ha ! ' But this to the 

 romantic mind seems bcmale. For myself, I should 

 prefer an explanation more picturesque and early 

 English. But so far one only knows that the thing 

 is called a ha-ha." 



On many of our American estates the ha-ha would 

 prove an ideal manner of dividing parks and pasture 

 lands from lawns and gardens. It has been tried on 

 a small scale, but not with the splendid results 

 achieved in England. With well-formed terraces on 

 opposite sides of the deep moat, big bowlders in 

 the bottom, where drainage water will supply damp- 

 ness for bog and rock plants, and large flat stones out- 

 lining and protecting the terraces, this can be made 

 an unusually attractive feature. 



The big, flat stone and bowlder walling is also 

 applied with good results to terraces along the gar- 

 den driveway. When the grade of the lawn makes 

 it necessary to have the drive cut through a hilly por- 



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