28 PARKS AND PLEASURE-GROUNDS. 



a level, as to prevent the dressed grounds from being 

 overlooked. 



Gates on the line of the Principal App^^oach.— Gates 

 intervening between the entrance lodge and the main 

 door of the house should, generally speaking, be avoided. 

 They either betoken some want of skill on the part of 

 the designer, or they are the result of some mal- 

 arrangement of the subdivisions of the park, or, perhaps, 

 of additions to the dressed grounds. The only excep- 

 tions to this rule are the cases in which parks and 

 pleasm^e-grounds are very extensive. In such circum- 

 stances secondary gates and lodges may be necessary. 

 Even in small residences, when the approach cannot be 

 protected by a fence the whole way to the main door 

 of the house, a light iron gate may be required to defend 

 the piece of lawn or ornamental ground before the en- 

 trance front. The subdivision of the park for grazing 

 purposes is the principal source of the gate nuisance on 

 the approach ; but it may be abated by the use of wire 

 fences, used as divisional fences, and made to run 

 parallel to the line of the approach, in which case they 

 interrupt the continuity of the park in a very slight 

 degree. They should be kept back from the road, at 

 least 15 or 20 feet; and the grass growing on the inter- 

 cepted space may be cut for hay or eaten down occa- 

 sionally by sheep. We have found such an arrangement 

 extremely useful in a park where the approach passed 

 through a wood, pasture-lands, and pleasure-grounds, 

 for the length of a mile without a single gate. 



Terminati07i of the Approach. — That part of the ap- 

 proach which is nearest to the house, and comes up to 

 the entrance, requires very carefal adjustment. When 



