Practical Directions 265 



to be kept at one uniform distance throughout, unless there 

 be some special reason for change. Walks that are not care- 

 fully formed in accordance with all these conditions will 

 appear more or less slovenly, deficient in the expression of 

 art, and indicative of an unrefined taste. 



To render the edgings of a walk firm, capable of being 

 made flat, and cut evenly, they should be formed of what 

 gardeners call rampering sods. These are thick turf-covered 

 masses of earth cut from an old rough pasture and about 

 six inches wide, and four to six inches or more in thickness. 

 They are to be inverted along the edges of walks, leaving 

 about two inches to be cut from the inner edge, next the 

 walk, and paring down the surface until they are brought to 

 the requisite smoothness of level. Edgings thus laid will 

 never crumble away or become uneven unless with extremely 

 rough usage. 



To determine the width most proper for a walk, the size 

 and arrangement of the garden will have to be taken into 

 account. Straight walks should always be wider than curved 

 ones, but there must be a nice proportion maintained between 

 their width and their length, as any excess of the former 

 would diminish the latter. From six to eight feet will gene- 

 rally be sufficient for the width of a straight walk, which 

 should certainly not be narrower than six feet. A terrace 

 walk may even be ten feet wide, or wider, if the house 

 be large enough to justify it. For serpentine walks from 

 four to six feet will be about the right width in gardens of 

 the size under discussion, four feet being a little too small, 

 unless the space be very contracted, and six feet somewhat 

 too large. The intermediate width will be best in most cases. 

 A drive can be eight, ten, twelve, or fourteen feet wide 

 according to its length, and object. A back drive that is a 

 branch from the main approach will rarely need to be wider 



