36 THE LITTLE GARDEN 



Tn furniture for the garden, that which is within reach of the 

 average owner is, again, painted wood. The pretty foreign chairs 

 and tables of painted iron are not for the casual American, but 

 for the traveled, the fortunate few. Iron, then, we must put 

 aside; marble, too, for this is only for the great, the important 

 garden, and it has its bad, impractical side even there. I doubt if 

 any material for gardens has been more misused in this country 

 than marble. I have seen marble benches in spots where it was 

 either to laugh or to cry, one could not tell which. Unless a 

 small garden contains a secluded entity in gardening, apart from 

 all else, and entirely of one character, as a picture, and as a place 

 to sit in, I cannot conceive of the suitable introduction into it 

 of any such monumental material as marble. Aside from taste 

 in such matters, one cannot really compose one's self readily 

 upon a seat whose temperature in shade, in our cool climate, is 

 always low. Cushions must be at hand; and cushions are a 

 nuisance. After this diatribe against marble, I shall seem incon- 

 sistent as I call attention to the charming picture opposite; 

 but here the marble seat is in entire harmony with the lines 

 and spaces in the garden of a fine Georgian house; and it is not 

 alone, it is one of two, placed in relation to each other on either 

 side of a straight walk leading to the garden on a much lower 

 level. This is an example of the good use of a marble seat. Such 

 use, I still maintain, is rare. The same arguments would hold 

 for concrete as material for garden furniture. 



Wood is the third substance for the tables and chairs of our 

 little garden, and wood is the best for our pmpose. The landscape 

 architect is again the one to consult upon designing or securing 

 the simple garden furniture needed where space is limited; aside 

 from this, good garden books may be looked into. A most beauti- 

 ful settee is seen in one of the pictures of Miss Jekyll's and Mr. 

 Weaver's " Gardens for Small Coimtry Houses." This was de- 



