German Houses and Gardens 
THE GOOD OLD AND THE BAD NEW EXEMPLIFIED BY A BENCH 
of stones, so that one has to jump about 
every twenty or thirty steps or has to put 
one’s feet on the blocks, hot in summer and 
sharp at their edges. 
The second example is a small bridge over 
a brook in the garden. The architect wishes 
to unite nature and art. Therefore he makes 
a railing for his bridge by bending young 
branches in peculiar lines and which conveys 
the impression of greatest insecurity. In 
the other case is a smooth, well-joined bridge 
construction with a secure and strong railing 
of unplaned and undecorated tree-trunks, 
comfortable, broad and unpretentious. And 
on the right and left bordering it are high, 
untrimmed trees, which give shade, and 
along the stream are willows or bushes which 
throw their shadows in the softly agitated 
water. Again that which is beautiful is 
simple and unforced; ugly, that which is 
artificially arranged. Naturally the most 
important question in planning a garden is 
the way in which the paths are to be laid 
out. The students of style have steadily 
busied themselves with this question ; and 
according to the changing fashion or taste 
have decided for straight or curved walks 
and declared the one or the other to be the 
only perfect element of design. The straight 
paths have the comfort of direct communica¬ 
tion, the curved ones mystery and romance. 
Good examples illustrating both may be 
given. Whereas straight walks may indeed 
be very beautiful, curved ones may be equally 
so, and one only needs to think of walks 
in old cities along slanting houses and irreg¬ 
ular fronts to recognize the poetic advantage 
of the latter as compared to the avenue con¬ 
structions that originated on the drawing- 
board of the architect. So we find here, too, 
that no law applies to all cases, but that one 
has to decide according to circumstances. 
Personal choice and again the conformity to 
peculiar circumstances have to decide the 
form to be used. 
The ’most important and most frequent 
means of enlivening the garden and at the 
same time the strongest point of attack for 
the architect is naturally the garden-house 
and the arbor. Many possibilities have to 
be considered, starting with the most primi¬ 
tive construction, which serves as a place for 
keeping tools and contains possibly only a 
simple bench up to the little garden-salons 
or the well-joined arbor which gives us pro¬ 
tection in rainy weather. Every one will 
recollect some horrible sight he has once 
seen of miniature stone palaces of cumber¬ 
some form, of log-cabins of grotesquely 
twisted tree trunks ; and by way of contrast, 
we may enjoy the simplicity of those little 
garden-houses of past times, as shown on 
T40 
