LANDSCAPE PARKS 



311 



inconspicuous in surface, sunk below the surrounding surface in places 

 to avoid interruption of a view, even slightly irregular in width if thereby 

 it might carry its traffic to the points intended with less interruption 

 of the natural character of the landscape. 



Park roads will naturally lie for the most part in the wooded areas or 

 running along their outskirts, alternately commanding a view from a 

 bay of foliage, or again passing through a shady promontory of the 

 woods. The road may be shaded by trees regularly spaced along it, 

 if it be desirable to introduce so obviously man-made an element into 

 the design. In any case the roads will tend to lie between diiferent 

 separate units of the park. It is often desirable that the road should 

 not command at the same time views into the separate units on its 

 two sides. This is of course the case where the characters of the two 

 units are incongruous, as for instance where the low-lying land in one 

 unit might betray the fact that a lake in the other unit was held at its 

 level by artificial means. 



Bridle paths in parks are commonly so intensively used that they Bridle Paths 

 cannot be treated simply as certain portions of forest or meadow which 

 may be traversed by riders, but must be definitely laid out and surfaced. 

 Nevertheless the softer surface of gravel or tan bark may be made in- 

 conspicuous, and as the restrictions of gradient and sharpness of turn 

 are by no means so great as they are with roads, and as a bridle path 

 need not necessarily be very wide, the bridle path can go, without ma- 

 terial damage to the landscape, into places where a road would be 

 impossible. Like a road, the bridle path should form a circuit or series 

 of circuits and should offer to the view of the rider an effective series 

 of different landscapes. It should cross the roads and footpaths as 

 few times as possible, and where these crossings occur, the planting 

 and grading should be so managed that one kind of traffic is not thrown 

 into the course of another suddenly and from behind a screen. 



Wheel traffic must perforce remain upon the road ; riding traffic can Footpaths 

 usually be without much difficulty practically confined to the bridle 

 paths and roads ; but with foot traffic there is always a danger that it 

 will leave the paths for some other route, unless everywhere along the 

 paths it is easier or pleasanter to follow the path rather than to traverse 

 the park along some line not contemplated by the design. If the foot 



