54 



THE VILLA GARDENER. 



and, if convenient, one whole winter, to settle, before the final smoothing of 

 the surface, the gravelling or paving of the walks, the edging of them, and 

 the planting of the trees and shrubs. When so much time cannot be allowed 

 for the ground to settle, it is better not to trench it under where the walks and 

 their edgings are to be placed, but merely to dig it; because, when trenched 

 ground does not settle evenly, which it very seldom does, the materials of 

 which the walk is formed, and its edgings, require, after a few months, to be 

 taken u^i and relaid. 



79. Arrangements for posts to support clothes-lines. — One considerable 

 advantage of a suburban residence to most families, and particularly to such 

 as have children, is, that they are enabled by it to wash at home, and have 

 their clothes dried in the open air. In the country, clothes are generally 

 dried on hedges or bushes ; but in suburban gardens they are commonly hung 

 on lines which are stretched from post to post along one side, or round the 

 entire garden. In gardens to houses of the smallest size, these posts are 

 commonly fixed in the ground, and the lines fastened to them on washing 

 days, and taken down when not wanted ; but, in all the better description of 

 gardens, sockets, which have been previously fitted to the lower part of the 

 posts, are fixed in the ground ; and into these the posts are inserted on washing 

 days, and the lines attached to them. When the clothes are dried, and the 

 lines are also dry, and have been taken off and laid in a dry part of the wash- 

 house or back kitchen, the posts are taken up out of the sockets, and put 

 somewhere under cover. If there is no shed, they may be laid on brackets 

 projecting from the boundary wall, with a coping board close over them to 

 throw oiF the rain. 



Fig. 22. shows the socket for the clothes-post : 

 it is made of four pieces of board, forming a 

 rectangular tube, rather narrower at the lower 

 end ; and t \^ a cap, or cover, also of wood, 

 with a ring in the top for lifting it off, which is 

 put on when the posts are not in use, to prevent 

 the socket from being filled up with dirt and 

 stones ; the length of the tube forming the 

 socket is generally about 18 in., and the width 

 inside about 4 in. at top, and 3 in. at bottom. 

 Fig. 23. represents a clothes-post: it has a 

 shoulder at the lower end (at u), to prevent it 

 from being wedged too firmly into the socket ; 

 two pins (v) passed through the top, in opposite 



and 



23 



4-^ 



directions, for the purpose of fastening the lines. In some 

 gardens the lines are fastened to trees, or stretched across 

 the garden from hooks in the side walls ; but the most con- 

 venient position is along the sides of the walks, over the 

 margin of the turf, so that a person may stand upon the 

 walk while hanging up and taking down the clothes. 



80. A green-house, orangery, or conservatory, ought, if possible, to be 

 attached to every suburban residence. The custom of rearing plants in pots, 

 and keeping them in the windows of dwelling-houses, is of great antiquity, 

 though it is only in modern times, and chiefly since the days of Louis XIV., 

 that a house for plants has become a conspicuous feature in the elevation of 



