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TOWN AND SMALL SUBURBAN GARDENS. 



tant when immense spaces will be covered 

 in for the purpose of securing sanitary 

 promenades. Indeed, something of the 

 kind has already been projected in con- 

 nection with an establishment for con- 

 sumptive patients. 



Gardens of this size, and surrounded on 

 three sides by walls, may be made exceed- 

 ingly interesting by covering the walls with 

 a glass veranda 6 feet or more in width 

 and 8 feet high, and paved with Caithness 

 pavement or encaustic tiles ; the walls 

 all round to be covered with flowering 

 plants trained against them, and growing 

 in a prepared border under the pavement, 

 as well as on the inside of the metallic 

 columns that support the roof in front. 

 Such a veranda as this would not only 

 afford a supply of flowers during the most 

 of the year, but would form a dry and com- 

 fortable communication between the front 

 door of the house and the street. The area 

 unenclosed with glass should be gravelled 

 or paved over, and furnished with vases, 

 tazzas, and ornamental cases more or 

 less elevated according to their sizes 

 and forms, to be filled with plants during 

 the summer. When the front lights are 

 removed, which they might be during 

 several months in the year, the whole 

 would form one very perfect whole ; and 

 if a fountain be placed in the centre, the 

 interest of such a garden will be greatly 

 enhanced. 



Villa or town gardens, surrounded on 

 all or most sides by walls or buildings, 

 might be rendered much more enjoyable 

 than they at present are, if such a veranda 

 or covered walk were made to pass all 

 round them, excepting perhaps that side 

 adjoining the house, which it might be 

 found expedient to leave open, to prevent 

 the light to the ground floor being inter- 

 cepted. This veranda might be covered 

 at top with galvanised plates of corru- 

 gated iron, or with Hartley's patent 

 rough glass, supported at front on cast- 

 iron hollow columns, through which the 

 rain-water could be carried down into a 

 drain or tank, to prevent the ground 

 being saturated with wet. Such a covered 

 walk would afford at all times a dry and 

 comfortable means of enjoying the gar- 

 den, and at the same time take off the 

 apparent confinement of the place by 

 hiding the boundary wall. It would 

 also, in either case— a few wires being run 



over it — afford a ready means for being 

 covered with climbing roses or other 

 similar plants ; creepers to be planted 

 at the foot of the supporting columns, 

 and conducted up them to the roof. To 

 render such a promenade still more 

 valuable, particularly during winter, the 

 floor should be elevated at least 6 or 8 

 inches above the level of the ground, and 

 the front sashes made to fit the spaces 

 between the supporting columns, and 

 arranged so as to run past each other on 

 rails placed below them, or by being 

 hung on the suspension principle from 

 above. The breadth of such passages 

 should not be less than 6 feet, but a foot 

 or two would make very little difference 

 in the expense of erection ; while, with the 

 above width, the walls might be covered 

 with many of the hardier species of green- 

 house plants, which, the roots being placed 

 beyond the reach of frost, would be found 

 to stand fully better than in most green- 

 houses. 



It has often struck us that, while there 

 is such a professed love of flowers and 

 plants existing amongst the occupiers of 

 town houses, more has not been done 

 to gratify this taste. We know of no plan 

 that would accomplish this at less ex- 

 pense, and with greater certainty, than 

 covering the whole garden as noticed 

 above, or by such a veranda as we have 

 now described. 



In covering a villa or town garden 

 entirely with glass, the height should not 

 exceed 8 or 9 feet, which would in no 

 way interfere with the windows on the 

 second floor ; nor would it in any way 

 destroy the effect of the elevation of the 

 house more than that of the wall that 

 may separate it from the street or public 

 road, as the ridge-and-furrow roof can be 

 made, and it should be made, quite level 

 from side to side. And where the space to 

 be covered exceeds 15 or 18 feet, tubular 

 metallic columns could be introduced for 

 its support, which would, at the same 

 time, serve the purpose of supports to 

 climbing roses, or the like. And if such 

 internal supports be objected to, the 

 roof can be supported upon the sus- 

 pension principle from without, as shown 

 fig. 516. 



Another advantage that would arise 

 from roofing over or covering town gar- 

 dens in particular, in this way, would be 



