CHAPTER IV 



Getting into a Place 



IT is the fashion of some landscape architects to consider all 

 roads or walks as simply necessary evils, to be slid over 

 and made as inconspicuous as possible — and then forgotten. 

 This has always seemed to me, however, a rather extreme view 

 to take of a thing so essential as our exits and our entrances — 

 a view that is likely to lead to over-elaborate efforts at con- 

 cealment of them. This in turn leads to freakish results — or is 

 liable to. 



Entrances we must have, therefore let us first of all be frank 

 with them. And then let us spare no pains to have them beau- 

 tiful ; for the entrance gives to the whole place its characteristic 

 first impression. But to make them beautiful we must find out 

 very carefully, at the outset, what constitutes a beautiful 

 entrance. 



The beauty in a gateway itself — ^the entrance in a narrow sense 

 — is secured, I should say, first of all by suitability. But gate- 

 ways we will leave to a chapter by themselves, and deal 

 here with the plan, on the ground, of the approaches from the 

 highway. These constitute the entrances in a broader sense, 

 being the way in ; and their arrangement is the first thing to be 

 considered and decided upon when developing the layout of a 

 place. They are one of the absolutely vital features. Indeed 



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