191 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
[ March 1884. 
hardly so thick as an ordinary building brick it makes excellent gar¬ 
den walls. But I have seen walls of large square blocks of limestone 
60 hard as to be very expensive both to excavate and dress that were a 
decided mistake. Glass walls in the form of narrow fruit houses are 
ndoubtedly the best enclosures in cold bleak situations, insuring as 
they do an abundant and 
regular supply of Grapes, 
Peaches, Nectarines, Apri¬ 
cots, Figs, Plums, Apples, 
and Pears. Unfortunately 
such enclosures are not only 
costly to build, but they in¬ 
volve a heavy subsequent ex¬ 
penditure for skilled labour 
to cultivate the trees. It 
should not, however, be for¬ 
gotten that the culture of 
fruit in such houses is de¬ 
cidedly profitable, soon cover¬ 
ing the expense of building 
as well as of cultivation. 
Growers of fruit for market 
may therefore certainly adopt 
this method with advantage, 
but it is only in exceptional 
cases that glass walls are 
likely to be built in private 
gardens. Wooden fences can 
hardly be recommended as 
permanent enclosures, but 
they continue sound for many 
years if due care be given to 
dressing the parts below the 
surface, and to painting the 
remainder. A useful form 
of this fencing was 
figured 
and described in full detail 
in the Journal in 1876, and 
it was republished in the 
“ Gardener’s Year Book ” for 
1877. 
Brick walls are undoubt¬ 
edly best for gardens gene¬ 
rally 7 , and bricks are more 
frequently used than any 
other material for this pur¬ 
pose. “ In selecting bricks,” 
says the Gardener’s Year 
Book,” “clap them together— 
if they ring well, and when 
broken show that they are 
burnt through, they will 
answer the purpose. A hard 
clamp-burnt grey stock is all 
that is wanted for strength ; 
for foundations use clinker- 
burnt marl stocks." Experi¬ 
ence in building proves the 
importance of this advice, for 
without close supervision 
some soft bricks are certain 
to be used, to the subsequent 
disfigurement of the wall, as 
they will crumble after exposure to a sharp frost or two. I may add 
that the hints on building in the “ Year Book ” are thoroughly prac¬ 
tical, and I have repeatedly found them afford information not to be 
found in such books as 
, - .. .. — - , Dodson’s “ Art of Build¬ 
ing,” and Allen’s “ Build¬ 
ing Manual.” For appear¬ 
ance, well-burnt red kiln 
bricks are decidedly pre¬ 
ferable to clamp bricks, 
but they are more expen¬ 
sive, costing 35s. a thou¬ 
sand, as against 25s. a 
thousand for clamp bricks. 
Where rigid economy is 
not insisted upon, not only 
should kiln bricks be used, 
but the wall should be 
rendered as ornamental 
as possible. 
The garden wall at Old- 
■.F 
i 
i 
s 
i- 
,<o 
< : :1 [ 2 ".~—> 
Fig. 40 
lands is a remarkable example of good taste, and is a decided step out 
of the ordinary method. It was designed by the late Sir Digby Wyatt, 
and is of solid 14-inch brickwork, 9 feet 6 inches high from ground 
line to coping, and the coping is cleverly contrived with three of 
Gubb’s coping bricks; A. fig. 39, imparting due importance and finish 
to the wall. Buttresses are built outside the wall as at b (fig. 39), 
where I have given full details of the brickwork to show how it is 
managed so as to have the ends of the bricks perfect outside the 
slope. A ground plan of a buttress is given in fig. 40, and the outer 
lines are added to show the width of the footings. 
The small doors of this garden, designed by the same eminent 
architect, are so superior to ordinary garden doors that I have shown 
the construction and method of hanging of one of them fully in figs. 
Fig. 41. 
41,42, and 43. They have been in constant use for upwards of thirteen 
years, and are practically as perfect as when first put up. This 
utility and durability is owing to the hanging, the bracing, and hinges, 
and to the absence of door frames. The hooks of the hinges are 
strongly bedded in stone blocks e (fig. 43), the lock and latch also 
fasten in a stone block D (fig. 42), which is inside the garden, where 
the doors shut against the wall in a rebate, F (fig. 43) made in the 
brickwork, so that the use of frames is avoided—a simple but impor¬ 
tant matter when it is remembered how prone timber is to shrink and 
swell when exposed to rain and sunshine. Fig. 41 shows the outer 
side neat and serviceable and also unclimbable, a by no means unim¬ 
portant matter in a garden door. 
The buttresses have been turned to account for the culture of Tea 
Roses, a different sort being trained around each buttress, the various 
aspects retarding or hastening the expansion of the floivers, and thus 
affording a valuable succession of bloom. Taken apart from this 
particular wall the transverse section a (fig. 39) is given as a useful 
