198 
The Garden Magazine, December, 1920 
Probably it is in the choice of subject that the personality 
of the master or mistress of the garden may be most readily 
expressed. One may choose Saint Francis preaching to the 
birds, another Phocis the patron saint of gardeners; still another 
may decide on Flora or Pomona, Love, Youth, Pan at his pipes, 
or some kindred subject. The garden lover caring chiefly for 
beauty and less for any special thought association, has even a 
wider field from which to choose. For such there are graceful 
nymphs, athletes, gay dancers, and a horde of merry children. 
Some would say that a falconer with his bird, a spearman, or a 
hunter, belong to a more virile class of subjects. These latter, 
however, to my mind are not equally suited to emphasize the 
spirit of joyousness and beauty which should permeate the 
garden atmosphere. 
C USTOM and good use have more or less prescribed the gar- 
den situations where statuary is likely to be most effective. 
Not only the desirability of having a statue in a certain spot but 
the form and character of the available statue must be considered. 
The relief obviously must be set in a wall, the sun dial in the 
sun. The two headed Termes are best placed to mark boundar- 
ies, possibly the dimension between two distinct parts of the 
garden plan. Here, however, we are more concerned with the 
free standing statue, the single figure or group. Such a work is 
often effectively placed at the juncture of two walks. A small 
space for grass or flowers may form the actual setting and the 
walks may meet and divide as they circle about this. 
An even better position is against a wall or hedge where two 
walks join in the form of a letter T. This is usually an especi- 
ally effective position. Placed against a suitable background 
such as a hedge, a group of evergreens, a vine clad wall of stone 
or brick, perhaps in the broken shadows of an over-arching 
tree or even in a niche in the wall, the best aspect of the chosen 
bit of statuary may form the closing for a view down the length 
of a double border, and the secondary views along the cross 
walk reveal other and quite different beauties. 
A somewhat more ambitious setting and one not often enough 
taken advantage of, is the placing of a statue so that its reflection 
will be caught in the surface of a quiet pool. Only a work of 
unusual beauty of line and composition can bear this self com- 
parison with any degree of happiness, however. In such a case 
both pool and statue might be at the end of a garden, perhaps 
in a bay of evergreens. If the garden is small a seat at the 
opposite end might provide an opportunity for obtaining the 
most beautiful effect of the whole scene. 
The centre of the oval or rectangular grass plot, about which 
so many of our American gardens are built, is sometimes chosen 
as a situation for a statue. There are, however, several more 
or less well grounded objections to this location. In the first 
place, the statue is so much of the time in the full glare of the 
sun that, due to the brilliancy of the reflections from its smooth 
surfaces, the full value of any delicacy of modelling it may 
possess is largely lost. A further objection made by some gar- 
deners is that a statue of much intrinsic interest so placed is 
always in full view and so assumes a greater importance than an 
accessory should possess. It is a rare statue that is sufficiently 
interesting from all sides to warrant its being placed where all 
views are of equal importance. Every statue has, as a matter 
of fact, its best and worst aspect. It is far better then to place 
the statue where we catch more or less momentary glimpses of 
it, come unexpectedly upon it, perhaps, where it is shown to its 
greatest advantage, pause to take in its beauties, and pass on to 
enjoy the equally important beauty of the flowers themselves. 
The fountain figure may hold any of these positions, and often 
indeed with the sparkle and splash of its rising and falling water 
fairly demands its place in the sun at the garden’s centre, which 
only goes to show that fountains are a subject by themselves. 
1 would by no means be understood as advocating that 
statuary should be tucked off into some obscure corner, but that 
instead of usurping the undivided attention of the onlooker it 
should hold its proper part in a well-composed, beautiful whole. 
And above all let the statue, like the other accessories, look as 
GAILY GROTESQUE THEY EXCHANGE AMUSED GLANCES ABOVE THE LOITERER’S HEAD 
A garden of size can afford to break its long sweep of walk by some such entertaining device which fur- 
nishes the so-inclined with an excuse to linger and an opportunity to gaze about at their ease. 1 he 
Termes are admirably placed and their inherent frivolity nullifies any possibility of oppressive formality 
