272 LANDSCAPE DESIGN 



In a large estate where the house is set at a considerable distance 

 from the highway, it often happens that no special provision for foot 

 traffic is made, since the road serves this purpose well enough, and the 

 wheel traffic is not so frequent as to be dangerous for pedestrians. If 

 there is a separate footpath for access to the house, purely for the pur- 

 pose of segregating the two lines of traffic, it may exceptionally be 

 desirable to run it parallel to the road, but usually the approach path 

 may run a more direct course than the approach road (see again Draw- 

 ing XXXVII), either crossing inconspicuously an open area which the 

 road must avoid for appearance' sake, or surmounting by a steep 

 gradient or a flight of steps a slope too abrupt for the road. As with 

 the road, it is seldom pleasing to make the approach path go notice- 

 ably out of its course for the sake of oifering any beauties by the 

 way. If a path is needed to an especially good point of view, it 

 would be better to make a separate path for this purpose than to 

 impose a constant burden upon foot traffic, some of it hurried, be- 

 tween street and house. Service traffic is of course particularly diffi- 

 cult to force out of its way except by the interposition of considerable 

 obstacles. It is important to know what will be the natural lines 

 of foot traffic among the various service buildings and between these 

 buildings and the house, and particularly between the street and 

 the service entrance to the house, the line which will be used by 

 those delivering the great bulk of small purchases of all kinds. Es- 

 pecially when the house is near the street it is necessary to provide 

 direct service access from the street by a footpath, since almost all 

 deliveries will be made in this way, and any cross-cutting, by traffic 

 of this kind, of areas intended for private enjoyment is likely to be 

 particularly annoying. 

 Design of the As we have said, in the beginning of the Chapter, the arrangement 



Whole Estate ^f ^j^g various elements of the estate, in their best relations esthetic and 

 economic, in any given design, should be the physical realization of the 

 desires of the owner, modified by the limitations of the site. It is 

 evident that this realization will be and ought to be different in each 

 individual case. The best design will be that which makes all its ele- 

 ments subserve its purposes with the least possible amount of incon- 

 gruous or wasted result. Such a design is possible only where the ideal 



