SUNDIALS AND STATUARY 77 



scheme of decoration. They are too stiff and uncom- 

 promising to be of any great value where natural effects 

 are closely imitated. As with sundials, statuary may be 

 often used to good effect at the termination of walks. 

 The visitor is inclined to disappointment, if, after follow- 

 ing a path for some distance, it stops dead, and he has to 

 retrace his steps. If, however, the walk terminates in a 

 small arbour, or a circular seat, with a bronze or leaden 

 figure on a pedestal as the central object, the ill effect is 

 entirely done away with. Isolated figures on lawns or 

 on bare stretches of gravel path only serve to make the 

 garden appear like the public parks or squares of the 

 metropolis. 



The ordinary garden of medium size has little oppor- 

 tunity for the introduction of statuary, and where any 

 doubt exists as to its being appropriate, it will be better 

 not to risk the possibility of failure. In any case, the 

 cheap and nasty casts, which seem to be an irresistible 

 bait, to seaside gardeners especially, are worse than useless 

 — they are positive eyesores. Given an old-fashioned 

 garden with quaint recesses and shady walks, the use of 

 statuary may be advisable, but in the town garden it will 

 be worse than foolish to perpetrate the follies of Versailles, 

 even though it be on a greatly diminished scale. 



