CHAPTER IX 

 GARDEN GATES 



JOHN WORLIDGE, writing in the year 1675 

 upon the "Art of Gardening," expresses himself 

 in this wise as regards walls: 



" When you have discovered the best Land, and 

 pleased yourself with the compleatest Form you can 

 imagine for your Garden; yet without a good Fence 

 to preserve it from several evils that usually annoy it 

 your labor is but lost." 



He goes on to say that the Fence may be made of a 

 variety of materials, but that of all the use of brick is 

 best. He allows a stone foundation of not more than 

 a foot in height, and favors stone pilasters at regular in- 

 tervals both for strength and appearance, as well as 

 other ornamentations such as niches, blind arches, 

 copings, and deep alcoves. And he would have the 

 gates carefully considered, and of wrought-iron where 

 this is possible, thus permitting enticing glimpses of the 

 beauties they guard. 



Many of England's finest places were designed and 

 laid out in this seventeenth century, a century that 



191 



