The Livable H 



o u s e 



to walk to the doorstep, is one which might well be sacrificed 

 for the improved appearance of the grounds. A house which is 

 nearer the road than seventy-five feet should content itself with 

 a side drive and a walk. 



( Four feet six inches is a minimum width for such a walk, be- 

 cause a narrower path does not permit two people to walk abreast; 

 nothing so cramps a place, and detracts from that spacious air of 

 ease and dignity, which is one of its most desirable attributes, as 

 narrow walks. 



Materials for paths present a much wider range than those for 

 drives, and it is sometimes hard to choose among the attractive 

 array of bricks and tiles of various sorts, flags, stone, and slate, 

 as well as the old standbyes, crushed stone and gravel. I am pur- 

 posely omitting cement walks from this catalogue because of their 

 extreme ugliness. They are irretrievably harsh and glaring in 

 appearance, and so far as I have been able to discover have no 

 quality to recommend them except their great convenience. This 

 under some circumstances, I am loath to admit, is sufficient. 



Brick, tile, and gravel are best adapted to formal use, broken 

 flags with the grass growing between are essentially informal in 

 spirit, although the degree of formality of almost any of these 

 materials is affected by the border treatment of the walk. For 

 instance, no path with flowers growing close to its border and 

 bending over the edge can be formal, strictly speaking. A turf 

 border between the flowers and the walk contributes to its for- 

 mality, and a trimmed hedge or coping along the edge prac- 

 tically insures it. 



' [24] 



