236 GARDENS: THEIR FORM AND DESIGN 



not only with a view to withstanding the severe test of 

 gales, the violence of which is almost unknown even in 

 our bleak country, but also that adequate shade may be 

 had when the strong midday sun pours down with full 

 force. 



Nature, it is true, helps beautify with a luxuriance of 

 growth which we in our country, even in the best aspects, 

 can hardly hope to achieve. At the same time, there is 

 much that a prolonged study of an Italian vineyard or 

 hillside can give us for our Northern gardens. 



Let us suppose, for instance, a bare chalk-slope in one 

 of the southern counties of England, the house so placed 

 that it lies above the garden, looking down upon it 

 towards the sun. No trees or vegetation of any kind can 

 exist when it is taken in hand, the soil is poor, any 

 moisture there is runs speedily away to the bottom of the 

 hill. We roughly sketch out upon paper the necessarily 

 formal surroundings of the house, the general require- 

 ments as regards main roads and paths of access to the 

 garden, the suitable positions for good displays of 

 herbaceous plants. What will the next consideration be ? 

 Like the Italians, we must endeavour to gain shade and 

 moisture and to improve the soil. A sad depression is apt 

 to overcome even the most sanguine in looking down upon 

 the bare earth, stretching in all its poor white chalkiness 

 below. We almost wish the garden were on flat ground, 

 for such deficiency of green vegetables would not then be 

 so evident. How, too, can we overcome the violent 

 assaults of that teasing and sometimes punishing south- 

 west wind ? That is another serious problem to face. 



An Italian hillside is cut up into small terraces, each 

 twenty or thirty feet long and sometimes half the breadth. 

 The terraces are seldom in regular lines, for they are hewn 

 and dovetailed in to follow the natural line of the hill. 

 Each is placed so as to obtain a maximum of sunshine. 



