V THE COURTS, TERRACES, WALKS 117 



2 1 feet across. Markham notices that the 

 French paved or tiled their centre paths, but 

 he preferred our gravel. The centre path is 

 to be slightly raised in the centre to throw off 

 wet. A useful caution is given by Meager 

 (1670) that the fall to either side from the 

 centre should be so slight as to be hardly dis- 

 cernible, for "a great fall is unhandsome, and 

 uneasie for such as wear high-heeled shoes." 

 Markham gives as practical reasons for his 

 triple walk — (i) That the contrast of colours, of 

 the green of the grass and the yellow o{ the 

 sand, is delightful to the eye, for "beauty is 

 nothing but an excellent mixture or consent of 

 colours, as in the composition of a delicate 

 woman, the grace of her cheeke is the mixture 

 of red and white, the wonder of her eye, blacke 

 and white, and the beauty of her hand blew and 

 white"; (2) if your walks are all grass, you 

 trample down part by treading on it, and make 

 it shabby and ill-favoured ; (3) that after dew 

 and rain you cannot walk on it at all. Another 

 form of triple walk is given by Worlidge, who 

 classifies walks under three heads, (i) The 

 best, he says, are made with stone " about the 

 breadth of 5 foot in the midst of a gravel walk 

 of about 5 or 6 feet gravel on each side the 

 stone, or of grasse, which you please." (2) 

 Gravel walks. These are good to be laid out 

 under fruit walls, because they reflect the sun 

 better than grass, and should be made in the 



