142 THE FORMAL GARDEN IN ENGLAND vi 



different designs were formed in grass-work. 

 Grass theatres were more common on the con- 

 tinent than in England. The author of the 

 Theorie et Pratique talks of a " salle avec des 

 gradins servant d'amphitheatre et de theatre 

 pourjouer la comedie." In the gardens of the 

 Prince Bishops of Wurzburg there was a famous 

 amphitheatre formed of banksofturf, with clipped 

 hedges for scenery. This practice of designing 

 banks and recesses of grass-work might well be 

 revived on simpler lines, provided always that 

 geometrical forms are kept to — such as plain 

 curves or rectangular shapes — and that there is 

 none of that vague amorphous sloping in which 

 the landscape gardener delights. There is no 

 reason why a croquet lawn should not be laid 

 out on the lines of a bowling-green, with regular 

 sloped grass banks at the sides ; and at one end 

 a semicircular bay in grass might be formed, 

 or what the older writers used to call a cabinet 

 — that is, a rejrular recess with a well-trimmed 

 pole-hedge. There are great possibilities about 

 such a. lawn properly handled — that is, if the 

 scale given by the dimensions of the croquet 

 ground itself is sedulously adhered to, and the 

 features introduced are kept sufficiently large 

 and simple. To make it a really valuable 

 part of the garden it is not enough to lay 

 out a sufficient expanse of grass, which loses 

 itself at the earliest opportunity in shrubs 

 and flower-beds. The lawn should be taken 



