PREPARATION OF THE DESIGN 95 



may seem a dull affair, but the greater mastery 

 one has over mechanical means of expression the 

 freer one is to develop ideas. Undoubtedly the 

 best ground work for the would-be plan drawer 

 is geometrical drawing. Apart from the fact 

 that many of the problems in that subject are 

 actually useful the accuracy required to bring 

 any exercise to a successful conclusion is splendid 

 practice. 



The scale to which a plan is worked depends 

 on the size of the ground depicted, and the amount 

 of detail involved. One-tenth of an inch to one 

 foot is an ordinary scale. One-eighth may be 

 needed for a small garden where brick paths in 

 parquet patterns have to be shown. For larger 

 plans one-sixteenth or even one-thirty-second 

 may be employed, but with the latter the plan 

 would probably need supplementing with details 

 on a larger scale. 



Whatever scale is used the plan must be fur- 

 nished with one by which distances can be reckoned. 

 The accompanying Diagram 27 shows the setting 

 out of a scale of one-eighth inch to a foot. Note 

 that only the first block of ten is divided into 

 units, and that the figuring of the rest begins after 

 this. This method saves dividing the whole scale. 

 Suppose a length of 23 ft. is wanted, the dividers 

 are placed at the 20 and stretched backwards to 

 obtain the 3 ft. from the unit divisions. Whatever 

 the scale it is made out in blocks of ten, whether 



