308 THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. 



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 moist, 

 while the broken and varied incidents of the surface get rid of 

 the hard unyielding lines of the gravel walk and help the picture. 

 They should never be set in mortar or cement of any kind, but 

 carefully in sand or fine sandy soil, and the work can be done by a 

 careful man with a little practice. If in newly-formed ground there 

 is a little sinking of the stone, it can be corrected afterwards. Small 

 rock plants, like Thyme, the fairy Mint, and little Harebells, may be 

 grown between the divisions of the stone, and, indeed, they often 

 come of themselves, and their effect is very pretty in a small garden. 

 Another point in favour of the stone walk is that it forms its own 

 edging, and we do not need any living edging ; and if for any purpose, 

 in a wet country or otherwise, we wish to somewhat raise the flower 

 beds, we can use the same kind of stone for edging the beds. 



GRASS, HEATH, AND MOSS WALKS. Once free of all necessary 

 walks about the house of gravel or stone, which constant work and use 

 make essential, it is often easy in country gardens to soon break into 

 grass walks which are pleasantest of all ways of getting about the 

 country garden or pleasure ground. Not only can we take them into 

 the wild garden and rough places, but they lead us to flowering 

 shrubs and beds of hardy plants and to the rock garden, or through 

 the pleasure ground anywhere, as easily and more pleasantly than 

 any regularly set out walks. There is much saving of labour in their 

 formation because given sound drained ground which is to be found 

 around most country houses, we have little to do except mark out 

 and keep the walks regularly mown ; when this work is compared 

 with the labour of carting, the knowledge and the annual care which 

 are necessary to form and keep hard walks in order, the gain in favour 

 of the grass walk is enormous. It is perhaps only in our country that 

 the climate enables us to have the privilege of these verdant walks, 

 which are impossible in warmer lands owing to the great heat 

 destroying the herbage, and, therefore, in Britain we should make 

 good use of what our climate aids us so much in doing. 



We have, of course, to think of the fall of the grass walk for the 

 sake of ease in mowing and in walking too, as very much of their 

 comfort will depend, at least in hilly ground, on the careful way 

 these walks are studied as regards their gradation. There is really 

 not much difference in the degree of moisture in such walks and 

 gravel walks, and, besides, so little use is made of walks of any kind 

 in wet weather, that generally, taking them all the year round, they 

 serve as well as any other where there is but gentle wear. 



Apart from the grass walks which can be formed in so large an 



