Ephraim Chambers

Terms

Alley, Arbor, Arch, Avenue, Basin, Bath/Bathhouse, Bed, Beehive, Border, Bower, Canal, Cascade/Cataract/Waterfall, Column/Pillar, Conservatory, Edging, Fountain, Gate/Gateway, Greenhouse, Grove, Parterre, Piazza/Veranda/Porch/Portico, Plantation, Prospect, Shrubbery, Statue, Terrace/Slope, View/Vista, Walk, Wood/Woods

Texts

• 1741–43, Cyclopaedia (n.p.)

"[vol. 1] ALLEY, * in gardening, a strait parallel walk, bordered or bounded on each hand with trees, shrubs, or the like. See GARDEN, WALK, EDGING, &tc.

"* The word alley is derived from the French word aller, to go; the ordinary use of an alley being for a walk, passage, or thorowfare from one place to another.

"Alleys are usually laid either with grass or gravel. See GRASS, and GRAVEL-Walk.

"An Alley is distinguished from a path, in this; that in an alley there must always be room enough for two persons at least to walk abreast; so that it must be never less than five feet in breadth; and there are some who hold that it ought never to have more than fifteen.

"Counter-ALLEYS, are the little alleys by the sides of the great ones.

"Front-ALLEY, is that which runs strait in the face of a building.

"Transverse ALLEY, that which cuts the former at right angles.

"Diagonal ALLEY, that which cuts a square, thicket, parterre, &c. from angle to angle.

"Sloping ALLEY, is that which either by reason of the slowness of the point of sight, or of the ground, is neither parallel to the front, nor to the transverse alleys.

"ALLEYS in Ziczac, is that which has too great a descent, and which, on that account, is liable to be damaged by floods; to prevent the ill effects whereof, it has platbands of turf run across it from space to space, which help to keep up the gravel. This last name is likewise given to an alley in a labyrinth, or wilderness, formed by several returns of angles, in order to render it the more solitary and obscure, and to hide its exit.

"ALLEY in Perspective, is that which is larger at the entrance than at the exit; to give it a great appearance of length.

"ALLEY of Compartiment, is that which separates the squares of a parterre. . . .

"[vol. 2] QUINCUNX is chiefly used in gardening, for a plantation of trees, disposed originally in a square; consisting of five trees, one at each corner, and a fifth in the middle; which disposition repeated again and again, forms a regular grove, wood, or wilderness, and then viewed by an angle of the square, or parallelogram, presents equal and parallel alleys. . . .

"WALKS, in gardening, See the article ALLEYS."

• 1741–43, Cyclopaedia (1:n.p.)

“ARBOUR, among gardeners, &c. a kind of shady bower or cabinet, contrived to take the air in; yet keep out the sun and rain. See GARDEN.

“Arbours are now gone much into disuse; being apt to be damp, and unwholesome.— They are distinguished into natural and artificial.

“Natural ARBOURS, are formed only of the branches of trees, interwoven artfully, and borne up by strong lattice-work, poles, hoops, &c. which make galleries, halls, porticoes, and green vista’s naturally covered.

“The trees wherewith these arbours are formed, are usually the female elm, or Dutch lime-tree; in regard they easily yield, and by their great quantity of small boughs, form a thick brush-wood: the lower parts are filled up with horn-beam.

“Artificial ARBOURS, and cabinets, are made of lattice-work, borne up by standards, cross-rails, circles and arches of iron. For which purpose they make use of small fillets of oak, which being planted and made strait, are wrought in checkers, and fastened with wire.”

• 1741–43, Cyclopaedia (1:n.p.)

“ARCH, in architecture, is a concave structure, raised with a mould bent in form of the arch of a curve, and serving as the inward support of any superstructure. . . .

“Triumphal ARCH, is a gate, or passage into a city, built of stone, or marble, and magnificently adorned with architecture, sculpture, inscriptions, &c. serving not only to adorn a triumph, at the return from a victorious expedition, but also to preserve the memory of the conqueror to posterity. See TRIUMPH.

“The most celebrated triumphal arches, now remaining of antiquity, are that of Titus, of Septimius Severus, and of Constantine, at Rome, of which we have figures given us by Des Godetz.”

• 1741–43, Cyclopaedia (1:n.p.)

“AVENUE, in gardening, is a walk, planted on each side with trees, and leading to some place. See GROVE, GLADE.

"All avenues, Mortimer says, should lead to the front of an house, garden-gate, highway-gate, or wood, and terminate in a prospect.—In an avenue to an house, whatever the length of the walk is, it ought to be as wide as the whole breadth of the front; and if wider, better.”

• 1741–43, Cyclopaedia (1:n.p.)

“BASON is also used on various occasions for a small reservatory of water: as the bason of a jet d’eau, or fountain; the bason of a port, of a bath, &c. which last Vitruvius calls labrum. See FOUNTAIN.”

• 1741–43, Cyclopaedia (1:n.p.)

“BATH, BALNEUM, a convenient receptacle of water for persons to wash, or plunge in, either for health or pleasure. See WATER. Baths are either natural or artificial. Natural, again, are either hot or cold. . . .

“BATHS, BALNEA, in architecture, denote large pompous buildings among the ancients, erected for the sake of bathing.

“Baths made a part of the ancient gymnasia.”

• 1741–43, Cyclopaedia (n.p.)

“[vol. 1] BED, in gardening, a piece of made-ground, raised above the level of the adjoining ground, usually square or oblong, and enriched with dung or other amendments; intended for the raising of herbs, flowers, seeds, roots, or the like.

“Hot-BED. See the article HOT-Bed. . . .

“HOT-BED, a piece of earth or soil plentifull enriched with manure, and defended from cold winds, &c. to forward the growth of plants, and force vegetation, when the season or the climate of itself is not warm enough. . . .

“[vol. 2] PARTERRE, in gardening, that open part of a garden into which we enter, coming out of the house; usually, set with flowers, or divided into beds, encompassed with platbands, &c. See GARDEN."

• 1741–43, Cyclopaedia (1:n.p.)

“APIARY*, bee-house; a place where bees are kept; and furnished with all the apparatus necessary for that purpose. See BEE, HIVE, BOX. &c.

“*The word comes from the Latin, apis, a bee. The apiary should be skreened from high winds on every side, either naturally or artificially; and well defended from poultry, &c. whose dung is offensive to bees. See GARDEN, HONEY &c.”

• 1741–43, Cyclopaedia (1:n.p.)

“CASCADE,* a steep fall of water, from a higher into a lower place. See CATARACT.

“* The word is French, formed of the Italian cascata, which signifies the same; of cascare to fall; and that from the latin cadere.

“Cascades are either natural, as that of Tivoli; or artificial, as those of Versailles, &c. and either falling with a gentle descent, as those of the Sceaux; in form of a buffet, as at Trianon; or down steps, in form of a perron, as at St. Clou; or from bason to bason, &c. . . .

“CATARACT * of Water, a fall, or precipice, in the channel, or bed of a river; caused by rocks, or other obstacles, stopping the course of its stream: from whence the water falls with a great noise and impetuosity.

“* The word comes from the Greek . . . cum impetu decido, I tumble down with violence; compounded of . . . down; and . . . dejicio, I throw down.”

• 1741–43, Cyclopaedia (1:n.p.)

“COLUMN, in architecture, a round pillar, made to support, or adorn, a building. . . .

“Statuary COLUMN, that which supports a statue. . . .

“Symbolical COLUMN, is a column representing some particular country, by the attributes proper thereto. . . .

“Triumphal COLUMN, a column erected among the ancients in honour of an hero; the joints of the stones, or courses whereof, were covered with as many crowns, as he had made different military expeditions.”

• 1741–43, Cyclopaedia (1:n.p.)

“CONSERVATORY, in gardening, See GREEN-House. . . .

“GREENHOUSE, or conservatory; a house of shelter in a garden, contrived for preserving the more tender and curious exotic plants, which will not bear the winter’s cold abroad in our climate. See EXOTIC.

“Greenhouses, as now built, serve not only as conservatories, but likewise as ornaments of gardens; being usually large and beautiful structures, in form of galleries, wherein the plants are handsomely ranged in cases for the purpose. See GARDEN.”

• 1741–43, Cyclopaedia (1:n.p.)

“COPPICE or COPSE, a little wood, consisting of underwoods; and may be raised either by sowing, or planting. See WOOD.”

• 1741–43, Cyclopaedia (1:n.p.)

“GARDEN. . . .

The chief furniture of pleasure gardens are, parterres, vista’s, glades, groves, compartiments, quincunces, verdant halls, arbour work, mazes, labyrinths, fountains, cabinets, cascades, canals, terraces, &c.”

• 1741–43, Cyclopaedia (2:n.p.)

“PLAT-BAND, in gardening, a border, or bed of flowers, along a wall, or the side of a parterre; frequently edged with box, &c. See PARTERRE, EDGING, &c.”