46 
House & Garden 
attractively with brick, as in the two semi¬ 
circular seats at the bottom of this page. 
Limestone or marble in the seats, supports 
and copings, affords a definite contrast with 
the brick. But these particular combina¬ 
tions are not the only ones. Slate slabs, 
in carefully chosen shadings, can be used 
in the same way where a sharp change in 
color is not wanted. 
Nor are the smoothly cut stones, like 
limestone, marble and slate, the only ones 
which can be used in garden seats. Less 
usual and by no means necessarily less com¬ 
fortable is the sort which is constructed in 
masonry, either of stone, brick or tile, or 
of combinations of those materials. A 
curved seat of this type is shown at the top 
of page 47, and it happily illustrates the 
splendid air of permanence and oneness 
with its site which is given the seat that is 
made an integral part of its surroundings: 
a feeling that is especially strong in this 
case because the seat functions both as a 
seat and as a retaining wall. 
Seats of cast stone are becoming more 
and more a part of the garden’s equipment. 
Compared with the same kind of seats in 
natural stone they are quite inexpensive, 
and for that reason they are often used in 
too great quantity. Seats of stone, or of 
stone-appearing material, are pretty rich 
affairs and should be used sparingly to be 
effective. Artificial stone, in itself, can be 
given a beautiful texture, and as long as 
it is handled frankly as artificial stone it 
should prove a valuable material for gar¬ 
den seats and ornament. 
It goes almost without saying that seats 
in marble, limestone and artificial stone 
should be used only in gardens which have 
a definite air of formality. Their sur¬ 
roundings should not be placed in the em¬ 
barrassing position of having to struggle 
to live up to them. They should lie set 
to an accompaniment of solidity—a solidity 
attained by the use of walls, paving and 
formally clipped hedges. They should never 
be set on turf, for their weight, when the 
ground is soft, will cause them to work off 
of a true level. Both for the sake of their 
appearance and their solidity, they should 
be given a floor of stone or brick paving. 
The whole effect of garden seats in wood 
Van Anti a 
A graceful combination of brick 
and white-painted woodwork 
makes this curved rose garden 
seat designed by Elsa Rchmann 
A brick and stone seat, with its 
removable padding and sun-dial, 
encourages contemplation and 
moralizing in shade and comfort 
White furniture effec¬ 
tively placed in the 
garden arbor of II. R. 
Loutz, Richmond, hid. 
Prentice Sanger, was 
the landscape architect 
