40 THE LITTLE GARDEN 



for themselves. To go back, however, to the treillage: the ques- 

 tion of the use or non-use of this lattice-work will be governed 

 entirely by the type of one's house and one's garden; its color — 

 for it is always of wood, painted (preferably I think of cypress) — 

 will also be settled by the color of the house. Where the house is 

 of low-toned material, a stark white treillage is inappropriate; 

 and here, either a good dull green, or a color near that of the bark 

 of a tree, wiU probably give the best efiEect. 



Of sundials, of bird-baths, and of garden sculpture I can say 

 little; this will be enough: think twice before overcrowding a 

 little garden; use such things as dials and bird-baths with great 

 restraint and care; treat them only as accents, and not as ob- 

 jects in themselves; think always of proportion, balance, color, 

 the general design or idea of the garden — exactly as no French- 

 woman buys a hat unless she sees herself under it in a full-length 

 mirror. This advice may be a bit feminine, but it is sound. But 

 for garden ornament generally, the advice I remember hearing in 

 my young days given by a distinguished clergyman to young as- 

 pirants to his profession, "Keep out of it if you can," appUes, 

 with a bit of transposition, to most ornament for the little gar- 

 den. Keep it out if you can. Your garden will be better if extra- 

 neous objects are few. I have just seen a lovely Southern house, 

 a house whose white-pillared portico and rose-colored brick have 

 as a foil a whole blue-green mountain behind them. Here, across 

 a walk from the steps to this portico, is a shallow marble basin for 

 birds, a tiny marble faun piping on one edge. This carries the 

 white of the marble pillars and steps farther into the foreground 

 of green lawn and trees, and is successful because it is suitable, 

 quite apart from its being in itseK a useful and charming object. 

 A basin set against the wall may form an excellent quiet 

 decorative accessory of the introduction of water into the little 

 garden. It may be entirely unobtrusive in line, or in garlanding 



