TERRACES AND TERRACE GARDENS. 



Widths of 

 terraces. 



pies. 



Much space has been devoted by writers on garden design to the length and width of 

 terrace gardens, but, as will be seen from what has been already said, this is a question 

 which very largely decides itself. Except where a raised plateau is being specially 

 made on an entirely flat site, on which to place the house, it will be governed by the 

 contours considered in relation to the height which is desirable for the retaining walls. 



. For instance, if the average fall 



, _ 88 - -_ +_ ,-_ I* m No. 108 is one in fifteen, and 



i ^H" ^aUte *t i g decided that retaining walls can- 



' *^ r FIG. 108. n t be made higher than will support a 



bank of earth four and a half feet high 



without appearing clumsy, the result will be as shown, and the proportions between 

 the widths of the two terraces will also be fixed between very narrow limits, for moving 

 the upper terrace wall would immediately throw the finished level too high or too low 

 in relation to the floor level of the house. The broader the terraces on a given slope 

 the higher the terrace walls, and so it becomes a question of so adjusting the breadths 

 as to guard against crampedness on the one hand and repellent-looking engineering feats 

 in the walls and their steps which may look too much like fortifications if too deep and 

 heavy. In those exceptional cases, however, where the conditions allow a choice of widths, 

 the terrace next to a mansion of average height and frontage should not be less than 

 twenty-five feet wide, while for the lower terraces, one hundred and twenty feet by sixty 

 feet, or larger in the same proportions, will generally be found suitable. 



Only by adapting the terraces to the natural levels of the ground can we secure 

 that restfulness and harmony between the home and the landscape which are so desirable, 

 and obtain harmonious composition whether they are viewed from the mansion or sur- 

 :ounding gardens. Any attempt to act independently of the contours will result in 

 giving the whole an air of artificiality which will be instinctively felt by the beholder 

 without his being able exactly to account for it. 



r CKIM4LEMIKE 



FIG. 109. 



The importance of fitting the house and garden to the natural contours of the 

 ground is shown on illustration No. 10. Here each of the four garden levels can be seen 

 from the window of the great hall, while on the North side the kitchen garden is 

 hidden, with the exception of the central walk, between the herbaceous borders. On this 

 site the cross fall is fairly even, but in the greater number of cases the falls or rises 

 are at varying angles and gradients on each side of the house. 



90 



