THE TECHNICS OF GARDENING. 137 



In Elizabethan and Jacobean times, the usual 

 form of approach was the straight avenue, instances 

 of which are still to be seen at Montacute, Brymp- 

 ton, and Burleigh.* The road points direct to the 

 house, as evidence that in the minds of the old 

 architects the house was, as it were, the pivot round 

 which the attached territory and the garden in all its 

 parts radiated ; and the road ends, next the house, in 

 a quadrangle or forecourt, which has either an open 

 balustrade or high hedge, and in the centre of the 

 court is a grass plot enlivened by statue or fountain 

 or sundial. And it is worthy of note that they who 

 prefer a road that winds to the very door of a house 

 on the plea of its naturalness make a great mistake ; 

 they forget that the winding road is no whit less 

 artificial than the straight one. 



The choice of avenue or other type of approach 

 will mainly depend upon the character and situation 

 of the house, its style and quality. Repton truly 

 observes that when generally adopted the avenue 

 reduces all houses to the same landscape " if looking 

 up a straight line, between two green walls, deserves 

 the name of a landscape." He states his objections 

 to avenues thus " If at the end of a long avenue be 

 placed an obelisk or temple, or any other eye-trap, 

 ignorance or childhood alone will be caught and 

 pleased by it ; the eye of taste or experience hates 

 compulsion, and turns away with disgust from every 

 artificial means of attracting its notice ; for this 



* As an instance of how much dignity a noble house may lose by 

 a meanly-planned drive, I would mention Hatfield. 



