COUNTRY VILLAS. 167 



which is not straiglit, and yet can scarcely be called curved. To render this 

 line simjily ar'istical, each curve may be made uniform in its degree of curva- 

 ture, as shown at h. To produce regularity in the line of curves, they ought 

 to be all of the same length and curvature, as shown at c ; and this line may 

 be raised to a higher character, and rendered symmetrical, by forming the 

 two extremities of two curves of the same size, and by uniting them with 

 smaller curves, as at d. The proof that this last line is symmetrical is, that if 

 separated into halves, neither half would form a whole ; whereas this would 

 be the case with the line c. It may be useful to remark with reference to the 

 first line (a), that all roads or lines formed by the traction of horses, or other 

 draught animals guided by man, commence, say, after a gate has been gone 

 through, by being inclined somewhat to the right; and terminate a little 

 before the next gate, or other obstruction, by being turned somewhat to the 

 left. This is supposed to be produced by the driver exercising his authority, 

 by means of the whip and reins, at the beginning and ending of a line more 

 than he does in the middle of it. Be that as it may, natural roads acro-s 

 fields, from one gate to another, will generally be found to consist of a short 

 curve to the right immediately within the entrance-gate, a short turn to the 

 left immediately within the gate of exit, and a nearly straight or indefinite 

 line between the two. In ploughed fields, also, in former times, where an 

 absolutely straight furi-ow was not, as at present, considered a desideratum, 

 the direction of the furrow was serpentine, for the same reasons as those just 

 given. We state these facts here, to show that a curvilinear approach road is 

 quite natural; though the imitation of it by man, in laying out a place, must, 

 as in imitating nature artistically in other cases, not be a mere fac-simile 

 repetition, but a resemblance according to art. In addition to the beauties of 

 regularity and symmetry in the line of direction of an approach road, expres- 

 sion, or character, may be added. Thus, the expression of grandeiu- may be 

 given by the increased size of the curves, and the general simplicity of the 

 whole line (as shown at h) ; that of picturesque beauty, by very sudden 

 changes in the direction of the curves, and by the partial introduction of 

 irregularity ; while a certain degree of elegance will be produced by gentle 

 curves, some of which are very much prolonged, so as to be approaching to 

 straight lines. The kind of artistical beauty least adapted to a curvilinear 

 approach road, is regularity, as shown in the line c ; which consists of a repe- 

 tition of curves of the same form and magnitude, from one end to the other; 

 and which, viewed merely as a curved line, and without reference to what 

 might be effected by the adjoining scenery, if it were carried into execution, 

 must be allowed to be monotonous. The grand source of character, however, 

 in the line of direction of an approach road, is produced by the intervention 

 of objects, natural or artificial, which set at defiance both regularity and sym- 

 metry, such as a rock, the base or talus of a hill, a building, a group of old trees, 

 a stream, a pond, or water in some other form ; all of which most commonly 

 occasion sudden and picturesque deviations from regulainty in direction. 



260. The inclination of the surface of an ajiproach road is subject to the 

 same general principles as its line of direction. In a common road across a 

 field, its surface follows every inequality in that of the pasture, and is, per- 

 haps, nowhere either regularly sloping or regularly level ; but, in the artisti- 

 cal imitation of such a road, the surface will proceed in a series of regular 

 slopes, joined with spaces approximating to levels, on exactly the same piin- 



