Chapter IX 
GARDEN GATES 
J OHN WORLIDGE, writing in the year 1675 
upon the “ Art of Gardening,” expresses himself 
in this wise as regards walls:— 
“When you have discovered the best Land, and 
pleased yourself with the compleatest Form you can 
imagine for your Garden; yet without a good Fence 
to preserve it from several evils that usually annoy it 
your labor is but lost.” 
He goes on to say that the Fence may be made of a 
variety of materials, but that of all the use of brick is 
best. He allows a stone foundation of not more than 
a foot in height, and favors stone pilasters at regular in¬ 
tervals both for strength and appearance, as well as 
other ornamentations such as niches, blind arches, 
copings, and deep alcoves. And he would have the 
gates carefully considered, and of wrought-iron where 
this is possible, thus permitting enticing glimpses of the 
beauties they guard. 
Many of England’s finest places were designed and 
laid out in this seventeenth century, a century that 
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