2IO LANDSCAPE- DESIGN 



position there must exist a more or less definite relation between the 

 opening and the arch or lintel over it, if there be one, and the height 

 of the adjoining wall. From the point of view of obvious fitness to 

 use, it is evident that a massive gate and gateway is unsuitable in a 

 barrier so low that it might appear to be easier to go over the barrier 

 than through the gate. Also a solid gate is seldom desirable in an open- 

 work fence. A gateway for foot traffic is given much additional dignity 

 if it may stand at the head of a flight of steps. A gateway standing 

 at the foot of a flight of steps, however effective it may be as seen from 

 the lower level, is almost certainly ineffective as seen from above, 

 since its lower portion is cut off by the ground. 



The gate which closes a gateway may be of solid boarding, com- 

 pletely cutting off the view, or of wooden or iron grille. The open 

 grille is often more desirable in a gate, even when it is not so in the 

 contiguous fence, because a gate necessarily suggests the presence of 

 another area beyond, and so, unless this area is in some way un- 

 pleasant, a glimpse into it through the opening rather enhances the 

 effect of the gateway.* 

 Statuary The landscape architect has at his command many minor objects 



of interest which he may use, each in its place, to mark the minor 

 centers of attraction which he creates in his designs. In the realm 

 of architectural and sculptural forms, he has the spheres or urns or 

 pineapples or flames which may serve as the finials of the posts of his 

 balustrade or fence, or as the crowning feature of the roof of his sum- 

 mer house. He has the sundials and gazing-globes that may mark 

 the intersections of paths in his gardens ; the vases which may mark 

 the four corners of a grass-plot or formalize by their repeated definite 

 shape the walls of an aUee. Besides all these, and many others, he 

 may call upon the complicated and more powerful interest of statuary. 

 A statue has all the power of exciting interest possessed by an architec- 

 tural form like the column or the vase through its beauty of proportion, 

 and through the perfection of its workmanship and the care which its 

 designer evidently lavished upon it. But beside all this, the statue 

 has the added attraction of representing a living form in which every 



* For further descriptions and photographs of gates and gateways see Jekyll and 

 Weaver, Mawson, and so on. (See References.) 



