I50 THE FORMAL GARDEN IN ENGLAND vii 



end. The fish-pond at Penshurst measures 

 about 2S P^ces by 21.0 ; it has brick side walls, 

 a grass verge 10.9 wide, and yew-hedges 7.6 

 high on all four sides. The water pieces at 

 Melbourne are rather elaborate, one, with a 

 fountain in the centre, is laid out as an oblong 

 with circular bays on the sides. The main 

 piece is formed by an oblong 72 paces by 43, 

 with a half-quatrefoil extension on the farther 

 side. This is surrounded by grass verges on 

 either side of a gravel path, and yew-hedges 

 with recesses for seats and statues. Opposite 

 the centre, on the farther side, is the famous 

 wrought-iron garden-house. The Long Canal 

 at Hampton Court, measuring 150 feet by 

 3.500, and formed in the reign of Charles 11. , 

 is probably the largest instance of the kind in 

 England. 



" Pleaching " is probably the best abused of 

 the many iniquities of the formal garden. The 

 man of " nature "■ says it is unnatural, and it 

 gives an occasion for cheap ridicule too obvious 

 to be resisted. But those who have a weakness 

 for the vicious old practice are in good com- 

 pany. The Romans used to do all sorts of 

 things in pleaching, and so did everybody else 

 down to the end of the seventeenth century 

 and later. The word "pleach'* means the 

 trimming of the small boughs and fohage of 

 trees or bushes to bring them to a regular 

 shape, and, of course, only certain species will 



