Chapter 8 (extract 1) of "Roses for English Gardens" by Jekyll and Mawley (1902), in which Miss Jekyll discusses the pergola as an important structure in garden design.
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Illustration: Rose 'Flora' on rough larch pergola.
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CHAPTER VIII
THE PERGOLA
Every garden is now wanting a Pergola, that pleasant shape of covered way that we have borrowed from Italy, where it is employed not only for its grateful shade but because it is just the right kind of support and way of treatment for the vines of sunny southern lands.
We have adopted the name because it is more convenient than the older name of covered alley, which three centuries ago was its nearest equivalent in English gardens. But this was formed on a much more elaborate wooden framework, a kind of uninterrupted arched trellis for the training of some green tree such as Hornbeam or Wych Elm, whose rigid branches had to be closely watched and carefully guided and fixed until the whole covering was complete; after which the chief care was the outer clipping into shape.
The modern pergola is a more free thing altogether and differently constructed. Upright piers of brick, stone, iron or wood are erected in pairs across the path and a connecting beam is put in place. A slighter top is made with thinner pieces such as larch poles, and the whole is planted with free growing climbers.
A Rose pergola should be so placed that it is well seen from the sides. One whose purpose is merely to make a shady way is better covered with leafy growths of Vine, Aristolochia or Virginia Creeper, for if they have not free air and space at the sides, the Roses will merely rush up and extend skyward where they cannot be seen.
But a pergola that crosses some open grassy space, such as might divide two portions of a garden, or that forms a middle line in the design of one complete garden scheme, is admirably suited for Roses, and a broad turf walk on each side will allow them to be seen to the best advantage.
Here it may be well to observe that a structure such as this, which is of some importance of size and appearance, cannot just be dabbed down anywhere.
It ought to lead distinctly from some clear beginning to some definite end; it should be a distinct part of a scheme, otherwise it merely looks silly and out of place. If there is no space where it will be clearly right it is better not to have it. There are arrangements less binding to definite design, such as pillars of Roses or arches at a cross walk, and many free uses on fences, trees, and unsightly places. An arboured seat is always a good ending to a pergola, and a place where ways meet often suggests a suitable beginning. Such a place may be glorified by circular or octagonal treatment, with a central tank or fountain, and pillars of Roses to mark the points of the octagon or relative points on the circumference. But space, proportion, and the nature of the environment must all be considered; indeed in this, as in the very smallest detail of procedure in garden design, just the right thing should be done or it is better let alone.
In small gardens in which there is no general design there often occurs some space where one department gives place to another — as when flower garden adjoins vegetable ground — where a short pergola-like structure of two or three pairs of posts may be quite in place and will form a kind of deepened archway. Such an arrangement in iron is shown in the illustration, where it makes a pleasant break in an awkward corner where there is a mixture of wall and flower border and a turn of the path.
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