Fig. 97. 



160 GARDENS : THEIR FORM AND DESIGN 



watered, but in countrfes where roof gardens are usual 

 cisterns are so arranged that they catch all rain from off 

 the tall house, and each roof has its own supply. A 

 tap is fitted to the cistern, and pipes convey the water to 

 the different roofs. Another important point that requires 



thinking out is how 

 best to obtain rich 

 soil, and to change 

 occasionally that 

 which is in the boxes. 

 No one need 

 despair of having 

 such gardens, for 

 even in the City it 

 has been possible for 

 Londoners to con- 

 struct them and to delight in sitting, in the cool of even- 

 ing, with the smell of stocks and carnations round them. 

 Perhaps the most successful town garden belongs to a 

 lady in Rutland Gate. Here a tiled forecourt has steps 

 leading up between a somewhat Japanese style of trellis 

 to a higher court. Japanese lanterns give height, and 

 interspersed with them are tall, slender trees. These, 

 together with bright-coloured pink geraniums, have had 

 happy homes prepared for them in sunken beds, or, where 

 these have not been possible, boxes filled with earth have 

 been utilized. Then, too, Hampton Court Palace gives 

 us examples of many such little hanging bowers, where 

 ladies tend sweet mignonette, verbena, and other flowers. 

 Some houses do not adapt themselves to a roof garden, 

 but possess instead a small entrance-court, or " forecourt." 

 If an old-fashioned iron gateway admits percha,nce to it, 

 then the square forecourt should be paved, and this will 

 give scope for much imagination. Tiny square beds 

 made in the paving will give a home to pretty flowers or 



