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CHAPTER XVI. 



Of avenue carriage drives we have already spoken in another chapter, and those Green 

 with which we now propose to deal belong to a different category, being purely a avenues. 

 part of the ornamental portions of the domain and considered solely as a feature in 

 themselves and not merely as an effective addition to a necessary roadway. 



The opportunity rarely occurs for the formation of an avenue on the grand scale 

 adopted by the gardeners of the Renaissance, such as the triple avenue at Badminton, 

 two and a half miles long, as described by Kip, the centre space two hundred feet wide 

 and the side aisles each eighty feet. They might however, be planted oftener than they 

 are, but with due caution, let it be noted, because, being essentially an expression of 

 stateliness, they should therefore lead up to some building of a scale and size sufficient 

 to give them an adequate object on which to focus their pronounced lengthwise 

 perspective and to close the vista. 



A form, of which many fine examples are still in existence, is the radiating avenue, 

 which generally consisted of a number of avenues starting from one point and inter- 

 sected by others arranged in a similar manner. The accompanying illustration (111. No- 

 321) from " Loudon's Suburban Gardener " conveys a good idea of such an arrangement. 

 While, however, the large square bosk and the two principal radiating aisles would 

 certainly be impressive, such a multitude of avenues as is here shown would cover a 

 large area of ground and would be pleasant only for use in the Summer months. 

 Where there is an unlimited extent of fairly level parklands, and where the distant 

 views are unimportant, radiating avenues, if designed so as to be strictly in scale with 

 the central mansion, may however be very effective. 



Both these classes of avenue are the accompaniment of architecture on a very 

 large scale, and form a part of an extensive domain and thus lead to the ques- 

 tion " Are avenues to be the accompaniment of palatial architecture only ? ' I can 

 only reply that I have never proposed one, excepting when it led up to an important 

 building, considering an avenue of fully grown forest trees to be entirely out of scale 

 with a small house ; but there are many examples of moderate sized residences designed 

 in the Georgian or Italian renaissance styles where short avenues, framing fine landscape 

 views, are entirely in keeping. Such avenues are by far the most effective when placed 

 on the East and West sides of the house, and, running East and West, they provide 

 green wings to the mansion as viewed from the South front. In Continental countries 

 these wings of foliage are used as a definite factor in the architectural composition and 

 are pleached to a formal line. Usually avenues arranged on the North, East or West 

 sides of a house are excellent as they give a fine spreading framework of trees as a 

 background to the mansion, but they should not be allowed to monopolize the entire 

 landscape, or, by approaching too near to the house, to shut out all views from the 

 windows or keep it always in shadow, especially on the South side. 



The best avenue is that formed of two straight rows of trees, or, if over five hundred 



251 



