164 THE VILLA GAEDENEK, 



shrubs, the walks may be closer together than where the surface is chiefly in 

 naked glades of lawn. The cheapest-kept pleasure-groimd is, generally, that 

 in which there are fewest walks, and broadest glades of lawn ; while the most 

 expensive are those where the surface is full of inequalities, the groups of trees 

 and shrubs numerous, and the glades of lawn narrow. In general, in proportion 

 as the surface of the ground is varied, so will be the beauty produced in any 

 given space ; more pictorial effect being found in one acre of undulations, than 

 in three of level surface, the art and skill displayed being in both cases alike. 

 254. The direction of the walhs should never appear to be forced, or to con- 

 sist of bends made obviously for the sake of rendering the walk longer, or of 

 avoiding a straight line. The direction may be straight or curvilinear, accord- 

 ing as the one or the other may be required on account of the objects at which 

 the walks are to touch ; or apparently occasioned by obstructions on the 

 ground, either natural or artificial. In curvilinear walks, no bend should ever 

 be made that has not an obvious cause in the disposition of the flower-beds, or 

 of the groups of trees and shrubs placed along its margin, or in the inequalities 

 of the sui face of the ground. Thus, if it be thought desirable to have a curved 

 walk, as shown in Jig. 80., flowers 80 



or shrubs should be planted, as 

 shown by the dotted lines, to give 

 an apparent reason for the curves. 

 Straight walks, where they are in- 

 troduced, should have an obvious reason visible for their being straight ; 

 such as an accompanying wall, a row of trees at regular distances, or a 

 covering of trellis-work, &c. In large places, the pleasure-ground, and con- 

 sequently the walks belonging to it, are generally confined to grounds on 

 one or on two sides of the mansion; while the grounds on the opposite 

 side are considered in the nature of park scenery ; but the grounds of coun- 

 try villas, such as those under discussion, are, as already observed, gene- 

 rally considered as consisting wholly of pleasure-ground ; and, consequently, 

 the walks are carried through the scenery on the entrance front, as well as on 

 the opposite side of the house, or what is called the lawn front. The grounds 

 on the side next the entrance front, however, being more exposed to strangers 

 coming along the approach road, have generally fewer walks, and these are 

 accompanied by groups more frequently of trees and shrubs, than of flowers ; 

 and by scenery, generally in a subordinate style of decoration. As the main 

 walk through the pleasure-grounds generally requires, on the side of the 

 entrance front, to cross the approach road, if the surface be much varied, or 

 expense be not an object, the walk may cross the approach on an archway 

 thrown over it, or by a tunnel carried under it : in either case, the road being 

 concealed from the s]!ectator on the walk, and the walk from the spectator on 

 the road, by planting. The eflx'ct of this arrangement is greatly to increase 

 the apparent extent of the grounds; and, indeed, in places where the surface 

 is naturally varied, and the subsoil dry, the spectator may be led three or four 

 times over the whole of the grounds, while, as he every moment enters on new 

 scenery, he fancies he is traversing a place of three or four times its real extent. 

 The great art of managing this description of scenery consists in the judicious 

 use of tunufls, bridges, ai;d raised surfaces in the form of wavy lidges, having 

 their sides clothed with evergreens, and walks along their summits, and in the 

 narrow winding valleys between them. Those who have never seen this kind 



