170 THE FORMAL GARDEN IN ENGLAND vm 



could only be fully handled In relation to the art 

 of the time. Such subjects as bridges and gate- 

 houses, for instance, would take their place in a 

 specific treatise on architecture. Where the house, 

 as was often the case, was surrounded by water, 

 the enclosure was reached by a bridge, sometimes 

 of wood, more often of brick or stone. There 

 is only one point to be noticed here in regard to 

 these bridges, and that is, that as much thought 

 and architectural knowledge were devoted to 

 their details as were spent on those of the house. 

 No such ragged and rickety structure as " the 

 rustic bridge " would have been tolerated in the 

 formal garden. The bridge at Clare (College), 

 Cambridge, designed by a builder-architect, is a 

 simple and very beautiful example, and perhaps 

 there is no better instance in the whole range of 

 garden architecture in England which shows 

 more clearly the absolute interdependence of 

 architecture and garden design. On the other 

 hand these bridges were sometimes unnecessarily 

 sumptuous. The well-known example at Blen- 

 heim is a standing monument of Vanbrugh's 

 megalomania. The Palladian bridge at Wilton 

 is a fine piece of academical design, but it is 

 rather unreasonable in England. When the 

 landscapists were destroying the formal garden 

 they preserved some of its worst features, among 

 them the Palladian bridge, which was repeated 

 literally both at Stowe and Prior Park. 



The gatehouse in the sixteenth century 



