The Pergola. 



181 



section (Fig. 256). In some cases even, marble pillars from some ruined ancient 

 building are brought into use always with a satisfying effect of solidity and 

 permanence. 



When in our British gardens there can be no question of such solid treatment 

 and only rough wood is available, the posts of the pergola are best made of oak trunks 

 of anything from eight inches to ten inches diameter. Their lifetime can be 

 lengthened by stripping the bark off the butts for a length of three feet and coating 

 the stripped part with gas-tar. Charring in the fire is even better, but is less con- 

 venient to do in the case of heavy posts. It is important that the tarring or charring 

 should be carried to a height of quite a foot clear of the ground, the danger-spot 

 being at the ground-line and just above it. The oak posts being set up, a rather 

 slighter log, adzed at the ends on what is to be the under side (so as to lie flat and 

 steady), is spiked to each pair of posts across the path, any slight curvature of the 



FIG. 257. LARCH PERGOLA OF TOO SLIGHT A CONSTRUCTION. 



log being taken advantage of to show some degree of upward camber. Nothing 

 looks weaker or less satisfactory than a cross-beam that swags downwards, as it does 

 naturally when of weak stuff, or if not adzed at the ends to give a firm seat. This 

 weak effect shows in the larch pergola illustrated in Fig. 257, which is altogether too 

 slight in construction. Pergolas of this class often show such cross-beams of weak, 

 drooping form, and stiff, straight braces cut out of the larch tops. The braces are 

 better when shaped as in the picture of the pergola with a paved path and fir trees at 

 the end (Fig. 258), where they are cut out of branches that have a little upward curve. 

 The example built of larch poles supporting gourds is cleverly done, the braces 

 of alternate posts taking a wide angle, and, after passing and being spiked to the 

 beam, joining at a ridge point ; the wider angle helps to give more rigidity to a 



