VI GRASS THEATRES i + i 



their original purpose, for they made them of 

 all shapes and sizes, and as often as not put 

 a statue or a fountain in the middle of the 

 grass. In the French system the houlingrin 

 only differed from the parterre in that the latter 

 was planted round with shrubs only, while 

 boulingrins were planted with trees — such 

 as elms, horse-chestnuts, and acacias (James). 

 In James's translation, boulingrins are defined 

 as '' hollow sinkings and slopes of Turf, which 

 are practised either in the middle of very large 

 grass walks and green plots, or in a grove, 

 and sometimes in the middle of a parterre, 

 after ' the English mode.' It is nothing but 

 a sinking that makes it a Bowling-green, to- 

 gether with the grass that covers it." The 

 depth of these bowling-greens would be about 

 2 feet in the larger instances, about 1 8 inches 

 in the smaller. They were divided into two 

 kinds — plain, consisting simply of grass-work, 

 with fine rolled paths between ; and composed, 

 which were laid out with trees, box, and palisades 

 of pleached work. In the latter case fountains 

 or statues were sometimes placed in the middle 

 of the green. 



The French further included in their classi- 

 fication of grass-work "ascents" of various 

 elaborate forms, which were generally sub- 

 divided into two heads — the glacis which was a 

 gentle slope, and the talus which was steep. 

 Besides the above varieties, theatres and banks of 



