306 THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. 



walk to the flower-garden, but that every walk not necessary for use 

 should be turfed over. Few have any idea how much they would gain, 

 not merely in labour, but in the beauty and repose of their gardens, 

 by doing away with needless walks. 



GRAVEL WALKS. For hard work and general use the gravel 

 walk is the most important of all for garden and pleasure grounds. 

 The colour of walks is important ; that of the yellow gravels being 

 by far the best. Of this we have examples in the country around 

 London, in the gravels of Croydon, Farnham, and also those of 

 Middlesex. These walks are not only good in colour but also 

 excellent in texture, consolidating thoroughly. It is a relief to 

 see these brownish-yellow walks after the purple pebble walks of 

 the neighbourhoods of Dublin and Edinburgh. After the sound 

 formation of these walks the main point is to keep them to the essen- 

 tial needs of the place, and when this is done their effect is usually 

 right. Even this excellent gravel is sometimes improved about 

 London by the addition of sea shells, cockle shells mostly gathered 

 from the coasts of Kent ; and, after the walk is formed and hardened, 

 this is lightly scattered over the surface and rapidly breaks down 

 and gives to the walk a clean smooth surface. 



In public gardens and parks large areas of gravel are sometimes 

 necessary, and in some ways of" laying out," such as those round French 

 chateaux, wide arid areas of gravel are supposed to have a raison 

 d'etre ; but in English gardens they are better avoided. English 

 roads, lanes, and pathways are often pictures, because consecrated by 

 use and often beautiful in line, following as they often do the line of 

 easiest grade or gentle curves round hills ; but in gardens, roads and 

 paths are often ugly because overdone, and nothing can be worse 

 than hot areas of gravel, not only without any relation to the needs 

 of the place, but wasting precious ground that might be made 

 grateful to the eye with turf, or of some human interest with plants. 

 STONE WALKS IN SMALL FLOWER GARDENS. A walk which 

 is much liked is the stone walk, suggested by the little stone paths to 

 cottages. In large open gardens such walks would not be so good, but 

 in small inclosed spaces and flower gardens, where we have to plant 

 very closely in beds, stone walks are a gain. In some districts a 

 pretty rough, flat stone is found, of which there is a good example at 

 Sedgwick Park. In cities, when renewing the side-walks, it is some- 

 times easy to get old flagstones, which are excellent for the purpose. 

 I use such old stones and mostly set them at random, or in any way 

 they come best. The advantages are that we get rid of the sticky 

 surface of gravel in wet weather or after frost, avoid rolling and 

 weeding for the most part, the stones are pleasant to walk on at all 

 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 



