V
The Garden-House
The garden-house was very important in Shakespeare's time. It was often a substantial edifice, built of brick or stone, placed at the corner of a boundary, or dividing wall, so as to afford a view of more than one part of the garden. Sometimes two buildings were constructed, one at each corner, as at Montacute. Another favorite position was at the end of a long walk ending in a vista; and another was overlooking the bowling-alley, from which visitors could watch the game. The garden-house was often fitted with handsome woodwork and even a fireplace. An outside staircase sometimes led to the roof.
The summer-house arbor was also often made of wooden lattice-work and covered with vines. Sometimes it was hollowed out of the clipped hedge, or out of a large tree properly shaped by the toparian artist. The gazebo, built at the corner of a wall overlooking the garden within and the road without, was also a popular kind of summer-house. The origin of the name is still obscure. Some people say it comes from the same root as to gaze, and refers to viewing the scenery; but there is a suggestion of the Orient in the word. The gazebo may best be described as a kind of wall pavilion.
VI
The Mount
The mount, originally intended to enable persons to look over the enclosing wall, served both as a place to enjoy the view and as a post of outlook in time of danger. Mounts were constructed of wood or stone, curiously adorned within and without. They were also made in the old barrow shape of earth and covered with grass. The top of the mount was often adorned with a summer-house, or arbor. The mount at Hampton Court, constructed in 1533 on a brick foundation, was the first specimen of its day; and the arbor upon it was a very elaborate affair, made of wooden pales and trellis-work. Sometimes the mount, instead of being a raised and detached mound, was formed like a long bank raised against an outer wall.
VII
Rustic Arches
"Rustic arches should be in keeping with the house and grounds. Firstly they should be in keeping with the style of the house and grounds. A white stone house with a light pillared verandah is not suited by rustic arches: it requires to be seen through vistas made up of arches as slender as the verandah pillars, of painted iron-work preferably, and the most telling contrast will be arranged if there are numerous deep evergreen shrubs.
"Rustic, or peeled oak, arches suit the modern red brick villa style of house to perfection; the trellis arch, being neat and unpretentious, is also in excellent taste. The old-fashioned country cottage, or the house built to imitate it, should not have trellis-work within half a mile. Rustic arches, or invisible ones of bent iron, are alone in keeping. By an invisible arch, I mean one consisting of a single bend of iron, or narrow woodwork upright with a cross bar—anything really that is intended only to support some evergreen climber or close grower, such as a rose that will hide the foundation at all seasons.
"Arches simply built of rustic poles are more pleasing than wire or lattice ones in any landscape; and the roughness of the wood is beneficial to the climbers that grow over them, affording an easy hold for tendrils. Whether the wood is peeled, or employed with the bark on—the latter is the more artistic method—it is an admirable plan to wash it all over with a strong solution of some insecticide and then give one or two coats of varnish. In most cases varnish alone is enough to preserve the wood.