2 o8 THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. 



For hard work and general use the gravel walk is the best of 

 all for garden and pleasure grounds. The colour of walks is im- 

 portant ; that of the yellow gravels being by far 



Gravel walks, the best. Of this we have examples in the 

 country around London, in the gravels of Croydon, 

 Farnham, and also those of Middlesex. These walks are not only 

 good in colour but also excellent in texture. It is a relief to see 

 these brownish-yellow walks after the purple pebble walks of the 

 neighbourhoods of Dublin and Edinburgh. After the sound 

 formation of these walks the main point is to keep them to the 

 essential needs of the place, and when this is done their effect is 

 usually right. Even this excellent gravel is sometimes improved 

 about London by the addition of sea shells, cockle shells mostly 

 gathered from the coasts of Kent ; and, after the walk is formed and 

 hardened, this is lightly scattered over the surface and rapidly breaks 

 down and gives to the walk a clean smooth surface. 



In public gardens and parks large areas of gravel are sometimes 

 necessary, and in some ways of " laying out," such as those round 

 French chateaux, wide arid areas of gravel are supposed to have a 

 raison c?etre\ but in English gardens they are better avoided. 

 English roads, lanes, and pathways are often pictures, because 

 consecrated by use and often beautiful in line, following as they often 

 do lines of easiest grade or gentle curves round hills ; but in 

 gardens roads and paths are often ugly because overdone, and 

 nothing can be worse than hot areas of gravel, not only without 

 any relation to the needs of the place, but wasting precious ground 

 that might be made grateful to the eye with turf, or of some human 

 interest with plants. 



A walk which is much liked is the stone walk, suggested by the 



little stone paths to cottages. In large open gardens such walks 



would not be so good, but in small enclosed 



Stone walks in spaces and flower gardens where we have to 



small gardens, plant very closely in beds, stone walks are a 



gain. In some districts a pretty rough flat stone 



is found, of which there is a good example at Sedgwick Park. 



In cities, when renewing the side-walks, it is sometimes easy 



to get old flagstones, which are excellent for the purpose. I 



use such old stones and mostly set them at random, or in any 



way they come best. The advantages are that we get rid of the 



sticky surface of gravel in wet weather or after frost, avoid rolling 



and weeding, for the most part the stones are pleasant to walk on at 



all times, and we can work at the beds or borders freely in all weathers 



without fear of soiling gravel. The colour of the stones is good and 



in sunny gardens in hot summers they help to keep the ground 



