24 OPERATIONS OF GARDENING. PART I. 



conversation may be able to walk two or three abreast. A path- 

 way of this description might not unreasonably be made of from 

 twelve to even sixteen feet wide. The best situation for it 

 would be by the wall of the garden, where high shrubs or trees 

 are planted to keep the premises from being overlooked. A 

 pathway of such great width would in reality be attended with 

 no loss of space, as it would extend only over ground occupied 

 by the roots of the trees along the wall-side, thus rendered 

 useless for other purposes. The ordinary paths of the garden, 

 by the sides of which low shrubs and fruit-trees are grown, need 

 not, of course, be so wide, and indeed for variety's sake, would 

 be more pleasing, for being narrower; though these, at the least, 

 should not be less than eight feet wide. 



In most of the gardens I have seen in the North- Western 

 Provinces, the laying out, as it seemed, has been left entirely 

 to the malee, who has portioned out the ground with narrow, 

 uniform paths intersecting each other at right angles, after the 

 pattern of a chess-board. I need hardly observe, that a piece 

 of land so disposed may answer very well the purpose of a 

 plantation, but does not deserve the name of a garden. Any 

 person of but the smallest pretensions to taste can hardly fail 

 of giving a pleasing appearance to a garden by laying out some 

 of the paths in a curvilinear form, instead of directing them all 

 in a straight line, as well as by contriving that those even 

 which are drawn straight, should intersect in the form of the 

 letter Y, instead of crossing at right angles. Care, however, 

 should be taken that trees or large shrubs be planted in the 

 principal bend of the curved paths, so that the direction given 

 to the paths may seem to have been a matter of necessity, 

 otherwise they will be apt to look fanciful and unmeaning. A 

 garden thus laid out will entail, it is true, a little extra 

 cost in nuls for conveying water under the paths ; but this is 

 comparatively of small consideration. 



In the gardens of Lower Bengal, where irrigation by water- 

 channels is not adopted, fruit-trees are cultivated in a detached 

 piece of ground, and no large trees or shrubs are planted near 

 the edge of the pathway. In such case the width of the 

 paths is of not so much importance. But still, I think, no 

 garden of any size will present a handsome general appearance 

 unless it has, at least, one wide spacious walk throughout its 



