100 



GARDEN WALLS. 



one tree during two or three years." It 

 is admirably adapted for nursery culture. 

 Fig. 99 is a self-supporting 4-inch wall, 



Fig. 99. 



i i . i . i n \h 



" formed in lengths of from 5 to 8 feet in 

 alternate planes, so that the points of 

 junction form in effect piers 9 inches by 

 inches." 



Fig. 100, is a zigzag or angular wall, 

 " in which the angles are all right angles, 



Fig. 100. 



and the length of their external sides one 

 brick or 9 inches. This wall is built on 

 a solid foundation, 1 foot 6 inches high 

 and 14 inches wide. It is then com- 

 menced in a zigzag, and may be carried 

 up to the height of 15 or 16 feet, of one 

 brick in thickness ; and additional height 

 may be given by adding 3 or 4 feet of 

 brick on edge. The limits to the height 

 of this wall are exactly that of a solid wall 

 of 14 inches thick — that being the width 

 of the space traversed by the angles or 

 zig-zag. This style of wall may be used 

 as a fence or shelter wall merely; but 

 the unevenness of the surface renders it 

 unfit for training trees against it. 



The angular and serpentine walls, figs. 

 101, 102, have two avowed objects, 



Fig. 101. 



namely, shelter and economy. It has 

 been calculated that walls built upon this 

 principle — the centres of the segments 

 composing the line being 15 feet apart— 



might be carried to the height of 15 feet, 

 and only 9 inches thick ; and that a 

 4-inch wall built on the same principle 

 might be carried 7 feet high. 



Walls upon an inclined surface, and in 

 exposed situations, may be sheltered as in 

 fig. 103, by having portable wooden wings 



Fig. 103. 



set at distances, so as to enclose a tree in 

 each space. They will break the force of 

 the winds, which often sweep along the 

 face of a wall with great power, destroy- 

 ing both blossom and foliage. In some 

 of the oldest gardens we have seen yew 

 hedges planted across the border, to afford 

 shelter in the same way ; and were it 

 not that the roots of such hedges rob the 

 border, their utility otherwise is un- 

 doubted. 



Reed walls, or screens, are very common 

 on the Continent. They are sometimes 

 made portable, being formed in panels 

 so that they can be removed at pleasure, 

 and at other times are fixed structures. 

 These were exemplified in the gardens at 

 Hylands, in Essex, at a time when Dutch 

 gardening was carried on to a considerable 

 Fi 104 extent. They are, how- 

 lg ' ' ever, of far too perish- 



able a nature to be much 

 used in this country. 



Walls of slate, board- 

 ing, or felt, may be 

 erected as shown in fig. 

 104. The slanting 

 coping is of boarding, 

 amply protecting the 

 southern, or best side, 

 but at the same time in- 



