European and Japanese Gardens 
THE OBLONG POOL 
Thus the English garden has its forecourt and basecourt, 
its gardens for fruit, vegetables and flowers, its places for sport 
and recreation ; and to> guard and protect all these from search¬ 
ing winds and prying- eyes, are the boundaries, the divisions, 
the walls and the hedges. The walls, especially those near the 
house, are always in cclose touch with the house itself. They 
are built of stone if thie house be of stone, and of brick if the 
house be a brick one, aand in their ornament, balustrades, gate¬ 
ways, posts, copings amd finials, they echo the character of the 
house. As one goes fmrther from the house the walls are less 
architectural and more purely utilitarian. The boundary wall 
of the place, or the north or east wall of the garden may be ten 
or twelve feet high, for these are to serve as a real protection ; 
others may be but two or three feet high, mere boundaries to 
mark a line. The hedjge is perhaps the commonest bound of 
all, and this varies from the rough pasture hedgerow to the 
clipped yew, or holly, or box. The ornamental clipping of 
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