GARDEN HOUSES 



181 



houses and bowers, for they take us back to the time 

 when Plato and Epicurus had schools of learning. They 

 gave up their private gardens to these centres of instruc- 

 tion, and scholars who wished to be near their great 

 teachers were allowed to erect huts or bowers near the 

 Museum and Exedra. The word " arbour " is derived 

 from "herbarium," a space 

 of grass planted with trees. 

 No doubt, as it became 

 necessary to gain more 

 protection than trees alone 

 could provide, solid struc- 

 tures were erected, which 

 were made elaborate or 

 simple according to the 

 style of the garden. 



It is not within the reach 

 of all to build solid shadow- 



FIG. 103. 



houses, and the prices charged for most are indeed sadly 

 prohibitive. For a small suburban garden, or in a simple 

 cottage one, an easy way to obtain quickly a sun-proof 

 shadow-house is to put stout uprights in the ground, 

 placing them at regular intervals to form back and sides 

 of whatever size and shape the house is to be. Fill in 

 between these with bundles of faggots or pea-boughs. 

 The roof can be pointed and also made of faggots, or 

 else by means of stout cross-pieces a sloping roof of any 

 shape can be built. The pea- boughs will keep it cool, 

 and quick-growing creepers like Tropceolwn canariense or 

 hops will soon help to make it picturesque. 



Likewise an ingenious way of making a comfortable 

 little shelter for an invalid is Fig. 104. The framework 

 consists of posts driven into the ground and deal battens 

 used as cross-pieces. A sheet of corrugated iron forms 

 the roof, which slopes down at the back, to allow rain to 



