FOREIGN NOTICES. 



nnd lianl miitoriiil cnn be Imd, such ns broken etonos, rubble, or even clinkers constitute ft good 

 foundation. Walks for ordinary purposes do not., as some imiij^ine, require a great depth of 

 bottom, beneath the lino gravel which constitutes the finish ; nine inehes in most cases will be 

 found ample. This founilation hits been mistaken by many for drainage, but no such thing is 

 meant, as the surface of the walk when finished ought to carry the rain to the sides; as little as 

 po6.-ible ehoulil be absorbed by the gravel, because where there is great traffie, in a short time 

 the walk.^ would become a complete puddle, and henee the necessity of rendering the suiface 

 impervious to wet. This has induced many pcreons to cover the tops of their walks with conerete 

 or asphalte, but when good gr.avol can be procured at a reasonable expense, I think nnder all 

 circumstances it is to be preferred. It is more congenial to our feelings and harmonises better 

 with the surrounding scenery of the garden. Under particular circumstances necessity will suggest 

 other expedients, but then let necessity also justify their use. Two inches of fine screened giavel 

 are sutficient wherewith to cover the surface as a finish to the whole, and where this is found to 

 be an expensive article, one inch, carefully laid on will suffice. Therefore when the cost of a 

 cubic yard of gravel i« known, it will be easy to ascertain exactly the expense of coating any 

 given extent of garden walks. 



I shall now direct attention to the form which the surface of walks should have when finisheiL 

 This I apprehend has been but little understood by those who have attempted to lay down rules 

 for our guidance, inasmuch as certain requirements, as well as peculiar situations, have a con- 

 siderable iniluence in the matter. 



Perfectly level walks, like the floors of a house, are not only more agreeable to walk on, but 

 they are also strictly in conformity with good taste in geometrical gardening, where sculptural 

 and architectural decorations pievail, and indeed in all kinds of gardening; the only ])lea that 

 can justify a deviation from this rule Ls, that our garden walks are exposed to the atmosphere, 

 while the floors of our houses are protected. To render walks available, therefore, for the jiur- 

 poses for which they are introduced, becomes a matter of primary import, otherwise the level 

 rule might be made absolute, as is the perpendicular in the elevation of a building. Now on 

 terraces surrounding buildings, and in elaborate parterres similarly or identically circumstanced, 

 the nearer walks approach a level surface, just in proportion will a mind imbued with taste and 

 a correct eye appreciate their execution. Walks so laid down are only available in perfectly dry 

 weather. Situations which are elevated, either naturally or artificially, and thus rendered per- 

 fectly dry, afford the best opportunities for a close approximation to this rule. It must be stated 

 also, that even in situations where the traffic over them is considerable, they will soon cease to 

 afford either comfort or enjoyment. Necessity, therefore, compels the adoption of a surface less 

 or more convex as the circumstances may appear to demand. W^aJks in private gardens are little 

 used in wet weather, and therefore they are not likely to be much disturbed at such a period, which 

 is the time above all others when excessive traffic breaks up their surface. The water does not pass 

 off, but is held in the loose gravel until they become almost impassable, which is in fact the ease 

 in all public walks so constructed, as was formerly notoriously exemplified in the Society's Garden 

 on wet exliibition days previous to their being altered. It therefore becomes clear that situation, 

 and the uses for which walks are required, should materially influence the operator as to the 

 proportion of convexity which they should receive. 



Some entertain an idea that walks should only maintain a very subordinate position in garden 

 arrangements, that they should be kept as mueh as possible out of sight, and that their appearance 

 should be oidy a matter of necessity ; but such notions are only applicable to garden wildcrnexscs, 

 and have no relation to gardening as an art of design. It might be urged, with quite as much 

 consistency, that the door of a mansion should be hidden or obscured, being only a means to an 

 end. Those at all acquainted with the classical aiwl decorative style adopted in some of the best 

 examples of Continental gardening will readily understand this, where indeed walks constitute 

 quite as important a feature in geometrical gardening as windows do in the elevation of a building ; 

 they illustrate in fact a material part in the composition. Divest a garden of walks, and the 

 main lines wliich mark out its form and proportions are destroyed. As roads are to a country 

 ences of the degree of its civilization, so walks in a garden are indications of the amount 

 ieal skill brought to bear upon it. Take as an example a garden planted with all p 



