A GARDEN IN VENICE 



the worn pali and cordoni judged not strong 

 enough for their former service. In their place, 

 to give more air and light, I now use lines of 

 zinc wire. The whole is bound together by osier 

 bands called stroppe, and secured against lateral 

 wind pressure by buttress poles tied to every 

 fourth or fifth upright. 



The stroppe require renewal every two years, 

 pali and cordoni every three to four, when the 

 whole pergola is thrown down and remade. The 

 vines, though often thrown to the ground too, in 

 the erection of the pergola, do not suffer ; but 

 when the cost of the labour is added to the price 

 of pali and stroppe such a pergola is not in the 

 long run cheap. If not so light and taking little 

 space it is most appropriate and the effect is 

 charming. In such a garden as ours the six or 

 seven hundred yards of pergolas built on solid 

 brick or stone pilasters would be utterly out or 

 character, and so weighted might go through the 

 bottom or sink with it into the lagoon we swim 

 on. 



Our pergolas then were there, and we too happy 



e 2 35 



