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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