W A L 



W A L 



"they are preferable to powdered coal or bricks, 

 as they bind very hard, and never stick to 

 the feet in frosty weather. And for wil- 

 derness walks they are before most other 

 substances. There are likewise walks some- 

 tinu'S lornied of turf, or what arc called grass 

 walks. In forming the first sort of walks, when 

 they have been marked out, the earth should be 

 taken away to a certain depth, that the bottoms 

 may be filled with lime rubbish, coarse gravel, 

 flint-stones, or other rocJ<y materials, to pre- 

 vent weeds from growing tiirough the gravel, as 

 well as to keep away worm-casts. It should be 

 laid ten inches or a foot thick, over which the 

 coat of gravel should be six or eight inches, 

 which should be very fine, but not screened, 

 the large stones only being taken out. When 

 the gravel has been laid to this thickness, they 

 must be exactly levelled, and raked true from all 

 great drips, as well as little holes : by this means 

 most of the stones will be raked under the feet, 

 which may either be evenly sprinkled back over 

 tlie last kngth that is raked, or buried in the 

 bottom. VValks are frequently laid too rountl, 

 so as scarcely to be walked upon with pleasure, 

 and so as to lessen the effect of their breadths. 

 The usual allowance for a gravel walk of five 

 feet breadth, is about an inch rise in the crown: 

 consequently, if twenty feet wide, it will be four 

 inches higher in the middle than on each side; 

 and for twenty-five feet, five inches, for thirty 

 feet, six inches, and so on in the same propor- 

 tion. When the walk has been carefully laid, 

 trodden down, and raked, either in lengths, or 

 the whole together, it should be rolled well, 

 both in lengTh and cross-ways ; the person 

 ' who rolls w earing shoes with fiat heels, that he 

 may not make holes ; as, when these are once 

 made in a new walk,* they are not easy to roll 

 out again. In order to lay them firm, it will be 

 necessary to give them three or four rollings, 

 after good waterings or heavy rains, as this 

 will cause the gravel to bind, so that when they 

 become dry they will be as hard as terrace. Iron- 

 mould gravel is said to be best for binding, or 

 such as has a little binding loam amongst it ; 

 which latter, though it be apt to stick to the 

 heels of shoes in wet weather, nothing binds 

 better ill dry weather; and when the gravel is 

 over-sandy or sharp, clay is frequently mixed 

 with It, which, when cast together in heaps 

 and well mixed, binds like a rock : loose gravel 

 is very uncomfortable and uneasy to walk on. 



Walks of this sort are not only necessary near 

 the houst"; but one should always be carried 

 quite round the garden, as being soon dry after 

 raiu, and prop* r for walking on in all seasons. 

 See Garden Plan. 



Those about the house should be large, and 

 laid out according to the nature and situation of 

 the ground. 



The walks laid with sand or other materials, 

 in the other difi'erent parts of gardens or pleasure 

 grounds, should be formed in the same manner, 

 having regard to the nature of the soil, so as to 

 render them as dry as possible at all seasons. 

 The Ijrcadlh in these walks should be in some 

 measure according to the nature of the ground. 

 Where this is small, five or six feet may be suf- 

 ficient ; but in large grounds much wiiler, as ten 

 or twelve. In modern grounds of this sort, 

 they arc mostly laid out in winding serpentine 

 directions, according to the nature of the sites, 

 so as to have them concealed, and rendered as 

 private as possible, by the trees and plants on 

 their sides ; the turns being contrived in as easy 

 and natural a way as can be effected. See 

 Gravkl. 



WALL, a sort offence erection in gardens, 

 built for the purpose of ripening all such fruits 

 as are too delicate to be perfected in this climate 

 without such assistance. Walls are built with 

 diflcrent materials, as stone, brick, &c., ac- 

 cording as they can be best procured, and at 

 the cheapest rate. But for fruit-trees, brick is 

 the best, as" being not only the handsomest, 

 but the warmest and ki'ndest for the ripening 

 of fruit, as well as affording the best conveni- 

 ence of nailing, for smaller nails will serve in 

 them than in stone walls, where the joints are 

 larger; and brick walls, with copings of free- 

 stone, and stone pilasters or columns, at proper 

 distances, to separate the trees and break ofl'the 

 force of the winds, make not only the most 

 beautiful but the most profitable walls that can 

 be erected. 



Sometimes walls are built of mixed materials, 

 as stones and bricks ; but in this way they should 

 be carefully built, or the brick front will sepa- 

 rate from the stone behind. 



Where walls are built entirely of stone, there 

 should be trellises fixed up against them, for 

 the more convenient fastening the branches of 

 the trees: the tinibers of tlicsc espaliers need not 

 be more than an inch and a half thick, and 

 about two inches and a half broad : these should 

 be fixed across each other, at about four inches 

 distance ; for, if they are at a much greater di- 

 stance, it will be difficult to fasten the shoots of 

 the trees properly. As this trellis will be laid 

 close to the wall, the branches of the trees will 

 lie about two inches from the wall, in which 

 position the fruit ripens better than when it lies 

 q^uite close to the wall. 



Many improvements have been attempted in 

 building walls in ditferent forms, as in femicir- 



