Royal Crescent, Bath.
Walked Maude into town this morning to do some shopping and for a change we walked round Royal Crescent.
Bath is famous for its beautiful Georgian architecture and in particular for its crescents, of these Royal Crescent is way out ahead the most famous to the extent that it’s hard to find any reference to Bath, online or in print, that doesn’t show it in a picture. It is lovely and it does have a ha-ha in front of it, but it’s not actually my favourite. I’ll have to take Maude for another walk and take a picture of the one that is.
23 October 2014
The Sixwheeler Chronicles 
Haha! What on earth is a ha-ha?
Goodness, do you not have Ha-Has in Australia? They are architectural devices which provide a fenceless fence. Let me give an example.
As a small boy I went to a ‘prep’ school in a former stately country house. When the house was built the architect wanted there to be sweeping views from the house, across lawns and gardens and then across the park beyond that; but didn’t want the cattle in the park ending up in the gardens. As the lie of the land was downhill from the house he was able to achieve this by using a Ha-Ha. At the end of the gardens a slice of land was removed across the slope and reinforced with a wall, about six feet high which was, of course, invisible from the house. By having a grassed area beyond the formal garden, running down to the parkland it appears continuous from above but an impassable defence from livestock below.
This is probably as clear as mud but Wikipedia tells it clearly with photos and diagrams, I’d put in a link if I knew how. Anyway ours was great fun for small boys to attack and defend.
Ah, I have seen those – in British travel or garden books :)
I’ve never seen one in Australia but I’ve never visited a stately country home here – only cattle stations protected by cattle grids and electric fences.
Does this imply that this row of terraces was once surrounded by parkland with cattle grazing?
No, it’s to keep the riff-raff at bay! Oh and to enhance the view. I’ve also emailed you, there are Ha-Has in Oz but definitely NOT in stately homes.