208 



THE VILLA GARDENER. 



space ; whereas a dilated surface of gravel, immediately in front of a portico, 

 always conveys the idea of confinement, and of the front or entrance-court to 

 a town mansion. The width of the approach road is supposed to be 15 ft, in 

 consequence of which two carriages may pass each other with ease without 

 going off the gravel; and, in the case of a large party, 50 or 100 carriages 

 might wait round the oval, and any one of them be called out to take up 

 company, without the slightest derangement to the others. All that is neces- 

 sary for this purpose is, that all the carriages in waiting round the oval should 

 stand along one side of the road, leaving the other side free for each carriage, 

 as it is wanted, to turn out of the line and drive up to the door of the house. 



304. The ground plan of the house and of the offices, of the conservatory 

 (/), and gardener's house {m), we shall leave to be determined on by the 

 architect, only stipulating that their precise position, as indicated in the plan, 

 shall not be altered ; and that there be the proper drainage to a main sewer, 

 commenced at the house, and conducted in a right line through the kitchen 

 and other courts, and through the reserve garden, to the boundary fence, with 

 manure tanks in the reserve garden (see p. 160.) ; and that over the stables, 

 or in some conspicuous part of the offices, there be a handsome turret clock, 

 the dial of which may be seen from the windows of the kitchen, and from 

 those of the gardener's living and sleeping-rooms; and from the forcing- 

 ground. 



305. Mode of concealing the offices. — The position of the house (a) and 

 the kitchen-garden (b) being fixed on, the most convenient situation for the 

 offices, as we have already observed, is between them ; and to disguise these 

 offices, or, at least, the courts belonging to them in which the business of 

 each office is carried on, nothing can be more convenient than garden struc- 

 tures, or garden scenery. In the more ordinary cases, a shrubbery may thus 

 serve to disguise the offices, and connect the house with the kitchen-garden ; 



120 



