74 



Gardens for Small Country Houses. 



CHAPTER VIII. ON HILLSIDE GARDENS. 



Lady Mary Worthy Montagu on Terraces Stairways- Terraced Gardens Inexpensive 



Materials Various Examples . 



NO site gives such great opportunity to the designer as one that slopes sharply. 

 Whether from the point of view of house or garden, it is a moot point whether 

 it is better that the slope shall be downwards from north to south, or with 

 an upward slope southwards. Assuming that the house is to face south, the former 

 disposition means an open and the latter an enclosed view. Most people prefer an open 

 outlook, but there is a feeling of comfort about seeing one's own boundaries that needs 

 to be taken into account. Generally, however, an alternative is not available, and our 

 site has to be accepted as Nature fashioned it. When a hillside is considered purely 

 from the point of view of garden design, it is obvious that its chief merit is that it calls 

 for the free use of terracing and steps, and no other two features of garden architecture 

 give so great an opportunity for varied and striking treatment. Bacon said that a bay 

 window was the place for conference, and one may pay equal heed to a more lightsome 

 author in her definition of a 

 terrace. Writing from Hinchin- 

 brook to her husband a few 

 months after her marriage, 

 Lady Mary Wortley Montagu 

 tells him, "I walked yesterday 

 two hours on the terrace," and 

 again a few days later, "The 

 terrace is my place conse- 

 crated to meditation, which I 

 observe to be gay or grave, 

 as the sun shows or hides his 

 face." Solvitur ambulando is 

 always a good rule, and a 

 terrace walk, with its un- 

 changing prospect and the 

 sense of security given by its 

 balustraded walls, is always 

 friendly to quiet thought. It 

 keeps the mind free from that 

 hint of surprise which tickles 

 the fancy of the true country 

 lover in the turns even of the 

 most quiet lane. 



That the creation of arti- 

 ficial levels is not, however, the 

 only way to deal with a hilly 

 site is clear from the first 

 illustration of this chapter. It 

 shows the admirable effect of FIG. 96. TREATMENT OF SLOPING GROUND WITHOUT STAIRWAY 



