WATER GARDENS 



115 



play in the centre. As usual in Italy, the beds here are 

 outlined with stone slabs, upon which, later in the 

 summer, tall orange-pots will stand. 



In England we hardly make sufficient use of flowers 

 grown in ornamental pots and boxes. If it be possible to 

 stand them close to the edge of a still pool, the effect of 

 colour in the water should be almost more attractive than 

 the actual pots themselves. Often, where old gardens can 

 be traced back many hundreds of years, we find one or two 

 long narrow-shaped pieces of water, bricked round and in 



A, Water-lily tank 



B, Clipped box-hedge; 



C, Paths ; 



D, Herb-beds ; 



E, Border of pinks. 



Fig. 82. 



connection with each other, possibly one lying at a con- 

 siderably lower level than the other. This betokens 

 that long ago a monastery was here. In these quiet 

 pools the monks had the fish so necessary to them for 

 fast-days in Lent, and now the name of "stew-pond " or 

 "fish-pond" is all that remains to remind us of them. 

 It is a puzzle to know how best to brighten so deserted a 

 spot. One way is to stand handsome orange-pots or any 

 other attractive terra-cotta or pottery jars along the 

 edges, placing them three feet or five feet apart and so 

 near the edge of the water that bright flowers in them 

 are well seen in the water below. 



