The Several Styles 109 



the terrace platform must be made so much the broader 

 that the upper edge of the bank may take a straight direction, 

 instead of being parallel with the house in all its parts. 

 Should the center of the house only, however, or one of the 

 principal rooms, be thrown forward in a square or partially 

 semicircular form, the terrace bank may very properly and 

 effectively take the same shape. The flight of steps should 

 be put in the center of this projection or omitted altogether. 



A terrace walk at the top of a slope and close to the house 

 has the advantage of commanding a good view of the whole 

 garden with the symmetry of its arrangements and the 

 beauty of its various parts and ornaments. By intruding 

 a little on the privacy of the windows, it involves a trifling 

 disadvantage, though it will be seen, by experiment, that a 

 walk close to the windows occasions less opportunity for 

 overlooking than one which is a few yards distant. If the 

 nature of the ground will allow, a small flower garden of the 

 most formal description may be made on the same level as 

 the house, but in limited places it will usually be more 

 appropriate below the terrace bank. The remaining parts 

 can be filled in as circumstances may direct. Only if the 

 garden be not large, a low architectural wall, either with or 

 without the addition of vases and urns or reheved simply by 

 piers, will be the fittest boundary fence along the front. 



The walks of a formal garden should always be either 

 straight or some arc of a circle, the former being the best. 

 Their width must be adjusted to the length. A straight 

 walk ought, perhaps, to be made broader than a curved one, 

 as it will gain in dignity thereby; and, in a geometrical gar- 

 den, walks have to be regarded as one of the principal fea- 

 tures. Width, however, invariably reduces the appearance 

 of length, so that the perfection of art will He in balancing 

 the two, both length and width being abstractly desirable. 



