ENTRANCES 3 



and where weeds, dilapidated buildings, or badly kept 

 roads and paths offend the eye, a poor opinion of the 

 maintenance of the place is formed. This remains during 

 one's exploration of other parts of the garden, and, how- 

 ever gay these may be, the first impression is not quickly 

 effaced. 



A further consideration should be that the approach to 

 a house is as direct and level as possible. Only such 

 beauties as chance to come within the route selected should 

 be shown. The drive, after it has passed the first en- 

 trance-gates, should avoid running parallel with the public 

 thoroughfare outside the park, and trees must be planted 

 if there is any likelihood of the lodge and gateway being 

 seen from the house itself. 



These are the chief rules that exist, and if we bear them 

 in mind whilst planning the approach, and have recourse 

 to planting in order to beautify where it is necessary or 

 to conceal where it is advisable to do so, we shall not 

 relapse into the errors of that era of bad taste when cir- 

 cuitous drives were made to give a false impression of 

 size and grandeur. 



In Elizabethan days, when carriages were the exception 

 and travellers usually came on horseback, it was the custom 

 to plant narrow avenues which led direct to the houses. 

 Charming as the effect is of a shadow drive, which makes 

 with its tall lime-trees a frame for the house itself at the end, 

 there are drawbacks to this kind of approach. The drip 

 from the trees makes the road itself difficult to keep up, 

 and its narrowness prevents the many vehicles of our day 

 from passing each other easily. Narrow avenues such as 

 these, and others slightly wider, like the lime-walks at 

 Hampton Court, which measure perhaps some twelve feet 

 in width and have a five-feet grass-margin upon either 

 side, are excellent as side vistas, where some pleasing 

 picture can be contrived near a house. At the end of one 



