278 PRACTICAL GARDENING. « 



the uneven surface, so must your preparation be made ; if the 

 ground is to be levelled, all this must be done before you 

 mark out your roads. In short, before you lay down one foot 

 of your plan, all that must be removed must be cleared away, 

 before you begin anything else. 



If in looking over your work there happened to be enough 

 cleared to begin, you must endeavour so to shape your course 

 as to appropriate as much of the really ornamental timber 

 and bushes as possible, but you must not be tempted to sacri- 

 fice any principle to save a tree. In forming a main road, it 

 is always desirable to bring it moderately near the outside of 

 the premises, and if there be much ornamental wood, the road 

 may be so formed as to command the best view of it. No 

 matter how many windings there are in a road if the sweeps 

 are very graceful, and not in any place abrupt, for convenience 

 must not be sacrificed under any circumstances. The pre- 

 sence of a river or lake must not turn your road out of the 

 way you desire to take if it can be crossed by a bridge ; and 

 here is the great danger of inconsistency. If the scene is to 

 be rural, the bridge should be rustic ; if the presence of art 

 must be manifested, here is room for the taste of the architect 

 to be displayed, but the charm of rural scenery is destroyed 

 at once. A rustic bridge can be made as strong as a fine 

 architectural pile, and the less formality there is, the better. 

 However, we will begin by clearing the ground of all that 

 must come away ; let all the ditches and hollows peculiar to 

 the old partitions of fields, paddocks, and enclosures be filled 

 up ; the ground not levelled perhaps, because that may be 

 contrary to the intended plan, but smoothed on the surface, 

 which may be nevertheless uneven. In landscape gardening, 

 there is not generally any more required of the levelling or 

 smoothing than can be done by the eye and a common level, 

 and even the latter is in few cases wanted. Tliis preparation 

 of the groundwork may be followed by forming 



The Eoads and Paths. — From the chief entrance to the 

 mansion there must be a carriage -drive, and this must be 

 continued all round the premises, not exactly on the skirts, 

 but so that the full extent of the premises devoted to the 

 landscape may be seen ; and it must, though it may lead to 

 other entrances, be continued to the main entrance also. As 

 the ground immediately adjoining the mansion is generally in 

 high keeping, and sometimes laid out to correspond with the 



