202 



Gardens for Small Country Houses. 



century — the golden age of the EngHsh smith — are of this simple type. Embossed 

 work is used sparingly, and the basis of their designs is scrolled work taking the 

 form of lyres and G's, variously combined and enriched by water-leaves. 

 Occasionally there is a diversion into riaturalesque forms, when terminals spread 



out as bunches of 

 .»«,.. .^,.. .»«»,„ laurel leaves. What 

 ; may be called the 

 London type was 

 essentially sober, 

 though rich in treat- 

 ment, and it is this 

 type which should 

 be followed in the 

 entrance and garden 

 gates of the small 

 modern house. They 

 should be built of 

 stout bars. Satisfac- 

 tory results cannot 

 be got from flimsy 

 sections, and the 

 temptation to use 

 light material to save 

 cost is to be resisted. 

 Far better a simple 

 gate of adequate 

 sections than one 

 bedecked with 

 acanthus but lacking 

 strength. 



Where there is 

 a garden-house 

 approached by a 

 long walk with an 

 opening in the wall 

 at the end of it, as 

 at Norton Conyers 

 , (Fig. 289), it is per- 

 missible that the 

 gate should be of less 

 sturdy build, so that 

 the full value of the 

 distant picture be 

 not lessened. 

 Another example of 

 this is seen in the 



very light gate in a wall that divides two long paths at Wych Cross Place (Fig. 286). 



Considerable space has been given to historical notes on the design of iron gates 



because so many garden pictures are spoiled by ugly examples, but the placing of 



the gates is an even more important question. When Fleming wrote in 1576 : " It 



FIG. 289, — AT NORTON CONYERS. 



