GENERAL PRINCIPLES 17 



not lead the designer to utilise it for promiscuous bank 

 making. It is seldom that a close survey of the ground 

 will reveal points at which it is possible to secure 



variety, without altering the general contour to any 

 appreciable extent. 



Garden paths nearly always cause monotony when too 

 much of their length is seen at once. This must not be 

 considered as in any way deprecatory to the straight 

 walk, than which often nothing is more satisfactory. 

 If the path is straight, there should be compensating 

 influences in the way of well grown plants or shrubs 

 along its sides to attract our attention. Where these are 

 impossible, the walk should be made to bend slightly, 

 occupying the curve with a group of flowering shrubs, 

 or some other suitable screen to hide its continuation 

 from view. The garden paths should most certainly 

 follow the varied levels of the ground, and nothing can 

 be worse than to attempt to fill up the hollows and shave 

 off the gentle elevations in order to produce a dead level. 

 This is the very way to engender the monotony, which 

 we are trying to dispel. A wild mountain path, or the 

 track through some woodland glade, never lacks variety, 

 simply because the feet that made it followed the line of 

 easiest gradient. In nine cases out of ten, the ugly walk 

 is the result of direct transgression of this simple rule, 

 and all that is needed to effect an improvement is the 

 reversion of the ground to its old level. 



The variety obtainable by the judicious employment 

 of living trees and plants is so infinite, that there is 

 no excuse for neglecting their friendly aid when planning 

 the several parts of the garden. A certain spirit of con- 

 servatism seems to prevail among modern gardeners, and 

 of the thousands of beautiful subjects which exist for our 

 benefit, not a tithe of the number are pressed into service. 

 Take, for example, that large and beautiful family, the 

 Flowering Shrubs, how very imperfectly is their value 



