166 



THE VILLA GARDENER. 



latter material, for wiiat may be called the everj' day walks of a place, is 

 owing to its firmness and dryness in moist weather, or after rain. 



258. The approach road, next to the house and offices, is one of the most 

 important features of a place, not only on account of its uses, but because it is 

 that by which an impression, favourable or unfavourable, is first made on a 

 stranger. It is, or ought to be, a walk or road fit for horses or carriages, 

 from the entrance-gate of the premises, to the entrance-door of the mansion; 

 formed and kept in a high style of art, corresponding with that displayed in 

 the other component parts of the residence. It should be as different from a 

 turnpike-road or public lane as park scenery is from that of a common grass- 

 field or meadow. As it may be advisable to consider this important feature 

 somewhat in detail, we shall endeavour to show how a high character of art 

 may be conferred upon it, in its direction, in the slope or inclination of its 

 surface, and in its material, margin, and accompanying scenery. 



259. The line of direction between the entrance-gate and the mansion, in 

 places laid out in the geometrical style, is in general straight, in the form of 

 an avenue ; but in places laid out in the modern manner, and more especially 

 in small residences like those under consideration, it is always more or less 

 curvilinear. Now, in order to give these curves a character of art, they ought 

 to have a certain uniformity in their degree of curvature ; and the number of 

 curves ought to be such as to give a character of regularity, or symmetry, to 

 the whole line of road. To have a character of art, each separate curve ought to 

 proceed, from its commencement to its termination, in an uniform uninterrupted 

 degree of curvature ; as opposed to the curves of natural paths, carried across 

 meadows or commons, in which curves are often to be found of so undecided 

 a character as to present tremulous-looking lines, instead of uniform bends or 

 curvatures. To constitute regularity among the curves, they ought all to be 

 nearly of the same length ; to preserve unity, they ought to be so united as 

 not readily to discover where the one curve begins and the other ends ; and, 

 to constiiute symmetry in the entire road, the curvatures which form one half 

 of it ought to be balanced by those of the other half. This may, perhaps, be 

 more readily explained by lines than by description. In fiff. 81., the lower 



extremity of each road, indicated by double lines, is supposed to be the 

 entrance-gate, and its upper extremity the entrance-door of the mansion. 

 Supposing the space between the gate and the mansion a common grass field, 

 v/ith no interruption of trees or ditches, but with some very slight inequalities ; 

 then the track of road which would be formed between these two points by 

 carts or carriages would probably be somewhat in the manner of the line a, 



