Gardens for Small Country Houses. 



219 



CHAPTER XIX.— STATUES AND VASES. 



Their Especial Value in Small Gardens — Scarcity of Good Models — Professor Lethaby 

 on Leaden Figures — On Gate-piers — Cupids — Pan — The Right Placing of Ornaments. 



IT seems to be thought rather generally that ornaments, such as statues and 

 fountains, find their just place only in great formal gardens like those of Wilton, 

 Drayton, Melbourne or Wrest Park. Probably this feeling is a survival from 

 the day when the formal garden itself was held in small esteem, or tolerated only 

 when it helped to frame some great historic house. It may be admitted that ornaments 

 need to be employed sparingly in small gardens, and that an undue liberality in their 

 use calls up visions of the mason's yard, but therein is 

 no reason for their neglect. Another cause that has made 

 designers of gardens, whether amateur or professional, 

 rather chary of resorting to them is the scarcity of good 

 models small enough to be in scale with a httle garden. 

 It is the fact that small figures which are genuinely old 

 are rarely met with in salerooms. Many of the avail- 

 able examples that pose, not very plausibly, as 

 " antiques " are copies of very poor models, and are 

 rejected as soon as seen. Present taste has accepted 

 the principle of formality in garden design. So far from 

 formal treatment being suitable for great gardens only, it 



seems to be pecu- 

 ^ liarly applicable to 



little spaces. 



Where a garden 



scheme extends 



over several acres 



a designer can 



afford to be 



severely simple in 



the details of his 



conception. A 



broad grass walk 



which runs a 



hundred yards 



between her- 

 baceous borders 



of, say, fifteen feet 



delightful in itself 



FIG. 318. — ON GATE-PIER. 



FIG. 319. — BOY FIGURE IN NICHE AT END OF 

 GRASS WALK. 



in width is a thing so 

 that its charm is self- 

 contained. The absence of a statue framed 

 in clipped yews to close the vista is forgotten 

 in the beauty of the wide sweeps of turf 

 and blossom. Variety of growth and 

 changeful schemes of colour provide the 

 necessary incident. A little garden, however, 



