196 GARDENS : THEIR FORM AND DESIGN 



day " has run its course. In all gardens, however, even 

 if they possess ready-made positions with overarching trees 

 and smooth lawns for garden encampments, there is a call 

 for originality of design and position for seats. 



When we consider the number of beautiful garden 

 ornaments which have been invented in all countries and 

 at all times, it is with real sorrow that we see so many 

 survivals of an era of not particularly good taste, in the 

 shape of iron benches. It is their undoubted durability 

 which has preserved them, and we who try to rest upon 

 them are the sufferers, not only from their unpleasing 

 appearance, but from the ill-chosen formation of the back. 

 They remind us of those uncomfortable open carriages 

 which have seen better days and yet are still used in some 

 small country village to meet the belated traveller. They 

 are shaped so that neither by stooping forward nor by 

 reclining absolutely at full length can comfort be obtained. 

 Let us stretch our limbs again in freedom and move on to 

 more picturesque ones, even if they do not happen to 

 possess the restfulness of a hammock or beehive chair. 



From old Italian pictures and books we learn that 

 beneath galleries or treillage bowers there usually were 

 seats. The word "casa" was not only applicable to a 

 small country house, but the name was also given to 

 bowers made of willow-wands interlaced, or other wood- 

 work, over which vines were trained. The French name 

 for these was berceaux d^osiers, which is descriptive. 

 The seats were often of stone and were more formal and 

 architectural than the surrounding arbour. In our country 

 stone seats are only possible if a smooth plank of wood, 

 painted the same colour as the stone, rests on them. We 

 then gain the advantage of having a solid, durable 

 foundation as well as good moulding or carving of the legs 

 or supports, which are handsomer and more lasting in 

 stone than in wood. 



