Glossary · H
Ha-ha
Also called ha-has, haha, sunk fence, ah-ah, ah! ah!
A sunk fence: a ditch with a vertical retaining wall on the garden side and a sloping bank on the other, which keeps cattle out of a garden without interrupting the view; named, Walpole says, from the surprise of those who came upon it.
See also: Belt
Rules that use the word
The ha-ha: a boundary that cannot be seen. In place of a wall, bound the garden with a ditch whose side towards the garden is a vertical retaining wall and whose other side slopes up to the field, so that cattle are kept out and the view from the house runs on uninterrupted into the park.
Lawn to the door, clumps on the rises, a belt round the edge. Bring grass up to the walls of the house and keep the cattle off it with a ha-ha; plant trees in clumps on the rising ground and as single specimens on the lawn; and enclose the park with a belt of woodland, with a drive inside it from which the park is seen.
Where it appears in the book
In the chapters Gardens and Landscape.
A feature of English landscape garden architecture.
Nearby in the glossary
Groin vault · Grotto · Guldasta · Guttae · Half-timbering · Hammerbeam · Hanegi · Hanok