312 LANDSCAPE DESIGN 



traffic is not too great and this general wandering over the surface of 

 the park does not prove too destructive to the park beauty, it would 

 be more pleasant to many active people than walking upon the paths, 

 and should certainly be encouraged. As the intensity of the use of 

 the park increases, however, there will come a time when foot traffic 

 will have to be confined to the paths if any landscape beauty is to remain 

 to be enjoyed. 



The natural tendency of people to follow a path when it is pleasant, 

 and to follow any path on the assumption that it leads to some sufficient 

 goal, should be taken advantage of in a landscape park by such arrange- 

 ments of paths that people are induced by them to go to the best points 

 of view and to approach these by the most desirable way. 



In irregular landscape and particularly in woods, it is often possible 

 to make a footpath little more than a convenient way of walking from 

 one place to another without any particular preparation of the surface 

 of the ground other than the removal of any obstructing vegetation. 

 Even when the traffic is considerable, it may be possible to use gravel 

 or pebbles or even pine-needles or leaves or tan bark to prevent the 

 ground from becoming dusty or muddy, still not producing a definite 

 line of path which will tell for itself as an element in the design. In 

 a flat or gently undulating topography, however, and particularly in 

 open country, if any considerable amount of traffic is to be provided 

 for, the paths must be definitely surfaced, and if any very large ex- 

 tent of paths is seen at the same time, their shapes as elements in 

 the design should be studied. There will be four considerations which 

 particularly affect their appearance : the pattern which they make 

 together with the plots of turf or shrubbery at their sides, the beauty 

 of their own curves considered purely as decorative flow of line, the 

 adaptation of these curves to the needs of traffic, and the fitting of the 

 lines and gradients of the walks to the topography. Any path, even 

 a pleasure path, in a park should seem to lead somewhere or at any rate 

 to make a circuit by a way chosen as the best. A path which wanders 

 about with no discernible reason is an annoyance for every passer. 

 When one path diverges from another, therefore, it should carry its 

 line of traffic off in a smooth sweep, or if it breaks sharply away from 

 the other path, there should be some obstruction or some attraction 



