32 THE ART AND PRACTICE OF LANDSCAPE GARDENING. 



soil, result from the action of water. Here is a natural agency the 

 effect of which we may imitate, in modifying the surface in our 

 circumscribed landscape ; so that our treatment of the ground may be 

 consonant with what is in reality a pervading expression. In Nature, 

 straight lines are very rarely found ; straight lines are the production 

 of art. The terrace, as before explained, and the region immediately 

 next the house, and indeed, in a less degree, that next any minor 

 building in the grounds, being by position artificial, should be treated 

 in a formal manner. This postulate will so far influence our treatment 

 of the rest of the landscape, that as the house is approached from the 

 boundaries of the estate, the planting, design and work should become 

 finer, more intricate, and more careful. Beyond the line of the terrace 

 wall, slope, or walk, the design of the garden may be naturally treated. 

 In this position a feeling of freedom should assert itself, and it may 

 be subtly induced by the undulating ground, with the curved lines of 

 walk, and planting. From the terrace, walks should not go off in the 

 same direction, but should, at any rate for some distance, deviate. In 

 the general arrangement of such walks, the curves should be set out 

 with broad sweeping lines, the chord of which should be so great, that 

 each sweep should be hidden from the succeeding bend. A multiplica- 

 tion of meaningless walks should be avoided, as should be the creation 

 of anything like the wriggling serpentine lines so often seen in badly 

 designed villa-gardens. It should be generally apparent that each walk 

 serves some special object, as the route to some distant point, to 

 connect two lawns, to approach some particular group of planting, to 

 reach some point of view, or to provide alternative means of com- 

 munication at different levels. No doubt the designer will have first 

 placed the group of planting, the lawn, the access to the view, or the 

 variation in level, but such a fact must never be obtrusive, and the art 

 which serves to emphasize the idea that the walk can only go rightly in 

 one place, must not be apparent. 



