122 



Landscape Gardening 



down by flights of steps. The steps resulting from any such 

 alteration of levels, will, if rightly treated, and adorned with 

 small vases, materially contribute to sustain the general 

 character of the place, though they should never be without 



Fig. 31. Grades about a House. 



more or less massive edgings or curbs of stone, or some living 

 substitute for these in the way of low dense evergreen hedges. 

 Any extreme slope of the ground away from the house can 

 be converted into terraces, as suggested for rising ground. 

 But many terraces on a descending slope ought not to be 

 used unless really necessary, for they serve to lessen the 

 apparent size of the place. 



Water, if admitted at all into the geometrical style, takes 

 the shape of basins with architectural rims, or fountains, 

 or larger pools that have sculptured figures along their mar- 

 gins, or very artificial cascades. Regularity of outline will, 

 as in other things, be the leading characteristic of all such 

 pieces of water. They may be circular or square, oblong, 

 oval, hexagonal, octagonal, or of various shapes, as described 

 for flower beds and masses. But they must not be irregular. 

 Fountains which merely gurgle out the water or throw it up 

 only a few inches, in the midst of round or octagonal basins 

 having a stone margin, are in the highest degree appropriate 

 and classical. And here it is worth while noting that simple 



