DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.66025#0155
GARDEN ORNAMENT
137
STONE-PAVED COURTS, PAVED
WAYS AND GARDEN SEATS
IF one may assume a typical arrangement of the entrance front of one os
the fine old manor houses of the 16th and 17th centuries, one may say that it
stood anything from forty to seventy feet back from the road, with an enclosed
forecourt either all paved or with flagged path with grass on each side ; the
path passing straight from the road to the front door. If the house stood on a slightly
higher level there would be a few steps flanked on either side by a dwarf retaining
wall at some point on the approach a good deal nearer the house than the front
entrance, and this upper space would be entirely paved. In many cases these manor
house entrances have more recently been made into gardens, and one cannot but
think that the gardening has often been overdone ; sor it is the safest rule to keep
the entrance side quiet as to showy flowers, and to reserve the main display for the
garden front of the house. Such a rule always works out well in practice, and indeed
the use os such restraint involves no penance, sor what is more delightful than Box,
Bay, and Rosemary, Skimmia and Alpenrose, and the handsome ground greenery
of Lent Hellebore, Megasea, and Acanthus ? A large proportion of these green things
with a few flowers only, such as Lilies, China Rose and Columbines, gives an appear-
ance os dignity to an entrance court such as would only be lessened by a more lavish
use of flowers.
It is a different matter in the case of a paved place which is purely a garden court,
that is, an enclosed space of actual flower garden ; for here the bright ssowers are
strictly in place.
In the matter of paving, as in all others pertaining to garden design and ornament,
we look to Italy for the finest prototypes. The illustrations of different views in an
open court of the Vatican gardens show a use of stone paving in large, simple forms,
such as is dignified in itself and in no way competes with the magnificence of the
adjoining structures. It may well be carefully studied as a desirable method of
treatment.
The beautiful garden seats of some of the Italian villas have also never been
surpassed, and though stone seats are scarcely suited to our climate, yet, when the
garden design has to conform to the style of a palatial building, the use os stone can
hardly be avoided. At least they are good for the eye to repose upon, when they
have a backing of yew or box and a further background of large trees with their ample
shade. For gardens of lesser pretension we may have wooden seats, either of hard
wood or painted. The common habit of painting garden seats a dead white is certainly
open to criticism. The seat should not be made too conspicuous. Like all other
painted things about a garden : gates, railings, or ssower-tubs, the painting should be
such as to suit the environment ; it should in no case be so glaring as to draw almost
exclusive attention to itself. Such a defect is clearly noticeable in some os the
illustrations. There is a convention among painters that ssower-tubs should be
painted a crude green and the iron hoops black, and that gates should be painted
dead white and the hinges and latches dead black. It would be better if the seats
and gates, ironwork and all, were painted either a grey like the colour of old
weather-boarding or some very quiet tone of green, and the tubs any tint of green that
is less green than the leaves of the plants they contain.
137
STONE-PAVED COURTS, PAVED
WAYS AND GARDEN SEATS
IF one may assume a typical arrangement of the entrance front of one os
the fine old manor houses of the 16th and 17th centuries, one may say that it
stood anything from forty to seventy feet back from the road, with an enclosed
forecourt either all paved or with flagged path with grass on each side ; the
path passing straight from the road to the front door. If the house stood on a slightly
higher level there would be a few steps flanked on either side by a dwarf retaining
wall at some point on the approach a good deal nearer the house than the front
entrance, and this upper space would be entirely paved. In many cases these manor
house entrances have more recently been made into gardens, and one cannot but
think that the gardening has often been overdone ; sor it is the safest rule to keep
the entrance side quiet as to showy flowers, and to reserve the main display for the
garden front of the house. Such a rule always works out well in practice, and indeed
the use os such restraint involves no penance, sor what is more delightful than Box,
Bay, and Rosemary, Skimmia and Alpenrose, and the handsome ground greenery
of Lent Hellebore, Megasea, and Acanthus ? A large proportion of these green things
with a few flowers only, such as Lilies, China Rose and Columbines, gives an appear-
ance os dignity to an entrance court such as would only be lessened by a more lavish
use of flowers.
It is a different matter in the case of a paved place which is purely a garden court,
that is, an enclosed space of actual flower garden ; for here the bright ssowers are
strictly in place.
In the matter of paving, as in all others pertaining to garden design and ornament,
we look to Italy for the finest prototypes. The illustrations of different views in an
open court of the Vatican gardens show a use of stone paving in large, simple forms,
such as is dignified in itself and in no way competes with the magnificence of the
adjoining structures. It may well be carefully studied as a desirable method of
treatment.
The beautiful garden seats of some of the Italian villas have also never been
surpassed, and though stone seats are scarcely suited to our climate, yet, when the
garden design has to conform to the style of a palatial building, the use os stone can
hardly be avoided. At least they are good for the eye to repose upon, when they
have a backing of yew or box and a further background of large trees with their ample
shade. For gardens of lesser pretension we may have wooden seats, either of hard
wood or painted. The common habit of painting garden seats a dead white is certainly
open to criticism. The seat should not be made too conspicuous. Like all other
painted things about a garden : gates, railings, or ssower-tubs, the painting should be
such as to suit the environment ; it should in no case be so glaring as to draw almost
exclusive attention to itself. Such a defect is clearly noticeable in some os the
illustrations. There is a convention among painters that ssower-tubs should be
painted a crude green and the iron hoops black, and that gates should be painted
dead white and the hinges and latches dead black. It would be better if the seats
and gates, ironwork and all, were painted either a grey like the colour of old
weather-boarding or some very quiet tone of green, and the tubs any tint of green that
is less green than the leaves of the plants they contain.