THE PERGOLA IN ENGLISH GARDENS. 



93 



THE PERGOLA IN ENGLISH GARDENS, ITS MAKING AND 



PLANTING. 



By Miss Jekyll, V.M.H. 



[Lecture delivered April 8, 1902.] 



It is only of comparatively late years that we have borrowed the pergola 

 from the gardens of Italy. Borrowed is perhaps, in its complete sense, not 

 quite the right term to use, for borrowing implies returning or repaying, 

 whereas, having borrowed the pergola, we have certainly kept it for 

 our own. 



Its main use in Italy is as a support for Grape vines and at the same 

 time to give shade to paths. Here we use it, not only for shade, but as 

 an important feature in garden design and for the display of the best 

 plants of rambling growth, whether for beauty of flower or foliage. In 

 the old English gardens of Tudor times there was something that 

 approached the uses of the pergola in the pleached alleys of Hornbeam 

 or some such tree trained on a framework of laths. But these shaded 

 alleys were slow of growth and wasteful of labour, and did nothing to 

 display the beauty of flowers. Our adaptation of the pergola gives a 

 much quicker and better addition to the delights of the garden, for we 

 have our shady walk, and in addition some of the most charming pictures 

 of flower beauty that the garden can be made to show. It is therefore 

 no wonder that a pergola or something of the kind is now wanted in 

 almost every garden. 



Before considering how it is to be planted it may be well to give an 

 idea of the different ways in which it is made. The simplest form of 

 pergola in Italy is made of stout poles guiding and supporting the trunks 

 of the vines, connected across the path by others of less diameter, with a 

 roofing of any long rods laid lengthways along the top. This is repaired 

 from time to time by putting in fresh uprights or other portions in the 

 careless happy-go-lucky way that characterises the methods of domestic 

 and rural economy of the Italian peasant or small proprietor. 



But often in Italy one sees solid piers of rubble masonry coarsely 

 plastered, either round or square in plan, or even marble columns from 

 ancient buildings. These have a more solid wooden beam connecting 

 them in pairs across the path, and stouter stuff running along the length. 



For our English gardens we have the choice of various materials for 

 the main structure. If the pergola is to be near enough to the house to 

 be in any sort of designed relation to it, and especially if the house be of 

 some importance, the piers should be of the same material as the house 

 walls — brick or stone as the case may be. Fourteen-inch brick piers laid 

 in cement are excellent and easily made. Such piers may be said to last 

 for ever, and if it is desirable that they should not be red, or whatever 

 may be the normal colour of the brick used, it is easy to colour them in 

 lime-wash to suit any near building. For association with refined brick 



