Formal and 



informal 



lawns. 



LAWNS, GLADES AND GARDEN WALKS. 



In no case is the value of plain green turf so evident as in connection with large 

 public or historic buildings. The plain, green, open expanse of the cathedral close, 

 which is so essentially an English feature, teaches us many lessons, especially if we 

 compare it with those instances where, under the mistaken idea of additional adornment, 

 it has been broken up and dotted over with shrubs. The effect of this treatment is 

 in every case disastrous, for, whereas formerly we had the level expanse of green 

 complementary to and emphasizing the vertical lines so characteristic of Gothic 

 architecture, now we have an area confessedly designed to attract admiration for its 

 own sake and consequently in feeble competition with the architecture. 



We have, in most gardens of moderate extent, two distinct classes of lawn, the 

 formal and the informal. The first of these includes those recreation grounds so essential 

 to a modern garden, the tennis, and croquet lawns, bowling greens and possibly a formally 





FIG. I5O. THE BOWLING GREEN, LEVENS HALL. 



treated archery or open-air Badminton court, and those level lawns or formal banks 

 which, together with other details, such as steps, walls, or clipped hedges, form the 

 architectural setting of the house. The second is comprised of the outer fringe of 

 grass running off on all sides into undulating lawns, broad grass glades or vistas which 

 unite the more formal gardens, by easy gradation, with the landscape beyond. 



As will be evident from what has already been said in dealing with terrace formation 

 in the formal or architectural garden, the shapes of the lawns and the proportion they 

 shall bear to the whole area of each plateau are all predetermined with almost mathe- 

 matical exactness, the strips and squares of grass in due proportion to the spaces and 

 terraces of which they form a part, and the tennis and other lawns for games in strict 

 conformity with regulation dimensions. 



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