LEVELLING AND LAYING OUT. 



149 



lines indicate a gravel walk, which skirts along part of the wood, that occupies, 

 in one part, the second slope ; at other points this slope is furnished with 

 blocks of trees, &c., and planted as a fernery, or wild natural scenery for a 

 ribbon-border of dahlias, perhaps 200 yards long ; 7 is a broad turf prome- 

 nade, probably 1,500 yards long and 30 feet wide, which bounds one side of 

 the nearly level space ; 8, which is occupied with a succession of gardens in 

 almost every variety of style, from the richest embroidered patterns of box, 

 sand, and flowers, through a succession of beautifully-grouped flower-gardens, 

 down to the most perfect imitations of natural scenery, indicates the posi- 

 tion of a walk which winds through beds of flowers, groups of shrubs, &c., laid 

 out in the picturesque style ; and the whole is bounded, on that side, by a 

 belt of wood, and at each end by an extensive park. 



354. Doubtless such positions are the most commanding, and afford great 

 scope for the display of cultivated taste and inventive genius ; sometimes, 

 however, the grounds are level, and it is desirable that a distant view 

 should not be obscured by a garden on the surface ; in such cases the 

 ground is shaped as fol- 

 lows ; a being the house, W///M^ ////////////M 0^^/// 7 

 h the gravel walk, c the ^'^w///W'^ '^ 

 turf lawn, d a sloping 



bank, e the garden, with rising bank beyond. Occasionally, again, the 



ground rises from the house, and a garden has to be looked up to, as in A ; 



in all such cases the ground should 



be levelled as far as c, and then 



either rise gradually, as shown 



above, or suddenly, as in B. When 



a garden is formed on the rising 



slope, the former method is generally 



best, as the beds meet the eye better. In one new place that I laid out, the 



ground rose rapidly towards the east, and was level on the south front. Now, 



as this commanded a magnificent ^,..,^^^ 



view, it was determined to keep ''^ -■ ^ 



that perfectly clear, and the gar- ^^^^P! 



den, &, was formed to the left of " 



the house, thus : — 



355. Brick or stone walls will sometimes be better and more effective than 

 earth-banks for maintaining the different levels ; they should incline towards 

 the bank from 1 to 1^ inch, according to their height. Generally, it will be 

 best to finish them with balustrading and vases ; occasionally, however, the 

 wall will look best if rendered altogether invisible from the inside, with a 

 plain wall or walls on the outside, — a kind of ha-ha. In all cases where walls 

 are used, the different levels must be connected by flights of stone steps. 

 The tread of these may range from 15 inches to 2 feet, and the rise should 

 average 6 inches in depth. Turf steps should never occur on a gravel walk, 

 nor stone on a turf bank. 



