38 Landscape-Gardening, 



may be wanted to make up the sides in passing through hollows. 

 ' Fill this bed or trench, two thirds of its depth, with the 

 coarsest of the metal, i. e. stones of from six to three inches in 

 diameter, well compacted together. On this foundation, lay a 

 stratum of screened gravel, or finely broken stone, two inches 

 thick, also well and equally trodden down ; and, lastly, cover 

 over with a thin coat of fine sandy gravel or road-sand. The 

 surface should be very nearly level across, leaving it but 

 slightly raised in the middle ; and the utmost care must be 

 taken not to level it longitudinally, but gradually and almost 

 imperceptibly undulating, so that no surface water may lie, 

 particular care being taken that it be drained off into the turf, 

 at every dip or depression. A road which is longitudinally 

 level, never dries quickly ; on which account, it is also less 

 durable. This is the greatest error of public-road makers ; 

 M'Adam himself not excepted; because, a road guttered by 

 carriage-wheels prevents water running off transversely. 



With respect to the width of a carriage-road, it should be, 

 more or less, according to the size of the place, or to the qua- 

 lity and firmness of the ground over which it passes ; for, if 

 this be firm enough to bear a carriage in breaking out of the 

 way of another, it will save the expense of making the road 

 wide enough for two carriages to pass. A uselessly wide road 

 is not only expensive to make at first, but for ever after 

 expensive to keep clean (and, if not kept clean, is ever up- 

 braiding the owner with neglect), and occupies unnecessarily 

 land which would look much better covered with grass. Such 

 considerations would not enter the mind of a landscape-gar- 

 dener in laying out an approach to a palace, or any thing like 

 a palace; but, for a Ferm£ ornee seven feet wide is quit suffi- 

 cient. This width will be mostly kept clean by the repair of 

 carriages, and if the road be constructed with materials and 

 in manner above stated, no ruts, or quarters will ever appear 

 on it after being fairly settled, and attended to during its 

 settling. 



Such a road should not have elevated edges ; the turf should 

 die into the gravel without any very visibly cutting line ; and, 

 if any thing, the gravel should be rather lower than the turf, 

 in order that it may not be seen in looking across it from dis- 

 tant parts of the park. 



Although the materials of which it is composed will assist 

 to keep the road dry as well as firm, yet it must not be for- 

 gotten that such a trench as this, cut into a bed of clay, will 

 be a receptacle for water, as well as for hard materials ; but 

 this the designer will be aware of, and provide against, by 

 open or covered drains, while employed in the formation. 



