WALKS, PATHS, ENTRANCES 85 



to the right it would have to be, unless it solved 

 the difficulty as in Plate II, page 34. 



Here, then, is an influence from outside the 

 garden or grounds that must always be reck- 

 oned with in planning at least the main en- 

 trance walk. For of course its curves, if it have 

 them, and its general direction will be deter- 

 mined by its point of departure from the side- 

 walk. The formula of the general rule, so far 

 as a general rule may be formulated, therefore 

 is: never pass the house entrance to reach the 

 entrance to the grounds. Supplement this by 

 a rule to go as directly as possible from gate 

 to front door, especially on small grounds. 



Garden entrances themselves, or gates, have 

 even greater possibilities as regards first impres- 

 sions than walks. Indeed they may very nearly 

 make or mar a place, as far as its street aspect is 

 concerned, for they have a capacity for express- 

 ing very accurately the qualities which lie be- 

 yond them; curiously enough, they seldom err. 

 I have never found an inhospitable gateway 

 guarding a generous, warm-blooded man's door- 

 way; neither have I ever failed to find the sort 

 of person I have learned to look for beyond the 

 arrogant, the mean, the splurging, or the silly 

 entrance. So let us look well to our home-por- 

 tals; they are all-revealing. 



