SUBURBAN RESIDEKCES. 51 



you have to descend, either through the front garden or grounds, or by steps 

 outside or within the house. 



75. The size of suburban gardens generally varies from 50 ft. to 300 ft. in 

 length, and from 20 ft. to 100 ft. in breadth; at least we shall take these 

 dimensions as those of the gardens we are about to describe ; and it may be 

 here observed that the same modes of planting and laying out are applicable 

 to all the plots between these two extremes, and even to larger and smaller 

 ones attached to houses, forming part of a street or row. The soil of such a 

 plot, whether large or small, we may suppose to be a loam more or less light 

 or heavy ; that soil being more common than any other in the neighbourhood 

 of towns, because they are generally built in valleys or on plains, where the soil 

 is most commonly alluvial or clayey, though sometimes it is sandy or gravelly. 

 The surface of the ground within the given limits can scarcely be otherwise 

 than tolerably even ; for though it may slope in some directions, and have 

 some holes and protuberances, from accidental circumstances, it can scarcely 

 have any natural undulations. The extent and the kind of ground being 

 given, the first things to be considered are, the supply of water or of gas to 

 the house, if by pipes that come through the garden ; the pump or well, if 

 water is not laid on ; the outbuildings, if any ; the under-drainage of the ground ; 

 the surface drainage ; the number and direction of the walks ; the improvement 

 of the texture of the soil ; and the arrangement for posts for drying clothes. 



76. Pipes through the garden, for ivater or gas, 8fc. — As most houses in 

 the neighbourhood of large towns are supplied with water from public sources, 

 by means of small pipes laid from a main pipe in the street to the cistern or 

 cisterns in the house, one of the first things to be attended to, in contriving 

 the arrangement of the front garden, is to fix on the place where the service 

 pipe, as it is called, shall be laid down. The object should be, to secure the 

 pipe from frost throughout the whole of its length, and to admit of its being 

 laid bare, when necessary, for repairs, with as little derangement to the gar- 

 den, and especially to the walks, as possible. The service water-pipe com- 

 monly enters the front garden under the sill of the street entrance or gate, 

 and is conducted along one side of the walk, or through that part of the 

 lawn, or front garden, on which there are few trees or shrubs, to the cisterns 

 in the house or in the area. The depth of the trench, in the bottom of which 

 the pipe is laid, ought not to be less than 3 ft., in order to secure it from frost; 

 and if, in any part, it passes through ground which is likely to be occasionally 

 trenched, there ought to be a line of bricks or tiles placed immediately over the 

 pipe, to protect it from the mattock or spade. Suburban houses are frequently 

 supplied with gas from the mains, which are carried along the streets for the 

 public lamps, for a lamp outside the front door, and sometimes for light in the 

 house ; and probably gas will ere long be required, even in fourth-rate houses, 

 for the purposes of cookery. The service-pipes for conveying gas need not be 

 laid deeper in the soil than 1 ft., as they are not liable to be injured by frost; 

 but, like the water-pipes, they ought to be protected, by bricks or tiles, from 

 the risk of the spade, when the gravel of the walks is turned or flower-beds 

 are dug ; and, like them, they should be laid down in such a direction as that, 

 when repairs are wanted, they may occasion as little derangement of the sin-- 

 face of the groimd as possible. In general, the gas-pipe should not be laid 

 directly over the water-pipe ; because, in that case, the latter could not be laid 

 bare and examined without disturbing the former. If, however, the water- 



E 2 



