LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE. 55 



or more ravines, beginning a mile or more from the shore 

 of the lake or river on which the town is situated. In 

 many instances these ravines assume an exceedingly 

 picturesque and attractive character, attaining a depth of 

 a hundred feet or- more, sometimes comprising at the 

 bottom a charming bit of secluded lawn, while the almost 

 precipitous sides are clothed with a fine growth of forest 

 trees, and in the spring are brilliant with the blossoms of 

 the trillium, anemone, blood root, and other wild flowers, 

 which seem to love to cluster upon such positions as are 

 most difficult of access. The invariable custom in laying 

 out land comprising such features, is to place the roads 

 at such a distance from the ravine as to admit one tier 

 of lots, the houses on which, fronting on the street, will 

 have their back yards running to the bottom or across 

 the ravine, the object being simply that the proprietors 

 may get paid for the land comprised in the ravine, which 

 is unavailable for any useful purpose. The result is 

 that all effect of natural beauty is lost to the general 

 public, who never get sight of the ravine except from 

 some point where a road is carried across it, and then its 

 attractive expression is entirely destroyed by the fences 

 running across it to mark the boundaries of the different 

 lots, as well as by its being made the dirt hole in which 

 every family deposits its accumulating store of old bar- 

 rels, boxes and battered tinware. If, instead of this, the 

 roads were carried on each side just on the edges of the 

 bank, and buildings only allowed on the opposite side, 

 the ravine would form an ornamental feature between, 

 on which the houses on each side would front, and the x 



