176 GARDENS: THEIR FORM AND DESIGN 



Let us take a few specimens of real shadow-houses, as 

 we find them in old places. There are first of all those 

 important ones that were placed in the corner of a 

 bowling-green or court. They usually were raised a few 

 steps above the terrace upon which they stood, so as to 

 enable spectators to have a good view of the game. This 

 also gave the small building a greater air of importance 

 and kept it dry. Often the terrace itself sloped down to 

 the bowling-green below, which afforded a return impetus 

 for the bowls, somewhat similar to that of the cushion in 

 billiards. 



An example of this kind is at Clifton Malbank, in 

 Somersetshire. As in our day every comfort and luxury 

 is thought out to make golf clubhouses or polo pavilions 

 perfect, so in olden days the bowling-green house was 

 carefully planned. Moreover, it was in really good 

 architectural style, and all details show the work of 

 intelligent craftsmen, who put a bit of themselves, some 

 soul, we may say, into their work. There was not that 

 need to hasten a job in order quickly to take over the next 

 work, which we have a feeling is sometimes now the ease. 

 Usually there was in it a panelled room with a fireplace 

 and window-seats. The latter were often so constructed 

 as to form a cupboard, in which bowls and other require- 

 ments of the game were kept. Sometimes in these old 

 lockers, hidden beneath dust-laden cobwebs, are found 

 touching reminders of the love men had for this game. 

 Special private bowls lie hidden there, with unmistakable 

 penknife-carved initials upon them. Perhaps an especially 

 seventeenth-century flourish to the R conjures up in our 

 minds the Sir Robert of that date, who, rumour tells, 

 found his chief relaxation in a study of this serious and 

 yet delightful pastime. 



A house like this is at Oxenhoath, in Kent ; and 

 Losely, in Surrey, boasts something of the sort at the end 



