292 Flagstone for Walks iti Kitchen-Gardens. 



of the paved walk not sinking in the slightest possible degree. 

 The advantages which we propose to be derived from this plan 

 are two : first, a great saving in the annual expense of cleaning 

 gravel walks and renewing the gravel, and trimming the edges 

 and renewing them ; and, secondly, the use of all the soil under 

 the walks for the roots of the adjoining trees or bushes. 



The only objection which we have hitherto heard made to 

 this description of kitchen-garden walk is the first cost ; and, 

 doubtless, in many places this would be considerably more than 

 o-ravel, where that material was on the spot, or at no great dis- 

 tance. When the great annual saving of labour, however, is con- 

 sidered, we do not think the first cost too great in cases where 

 <i-ravel is to be brought from a distance ; or where, as in the 

 neighbourhood of London for example, it is high-priced, and 

 where flagstone can be easily procured by canal. In the neigh- 

 bourhood of London, Yorkshire flagstone, worked or dressed on 

 one side, can be procured, when taken in large quantities, at 

 from 5d. to Id. per superficial foot ; while good gravel is from 

 6s. to 85. per cubic yard, and box edgings from ^d. to 6d. per 

 yard in the nurseries. Now, in such a case as this, if the piers 

 for supporting the pavement did not require to be more than 

 3 ft. in height, a paved walk 5 ft. wide would not cost above a 

 third more than a gravel walk, with box edgings, of the same 

 width. Considering the saving of almost all future labour in 

 the case of the pavement, and the certainty of having the walk 

 always in perfect order and beauty, and never soft or wet during 

 even a shower of rain, we should determine at once in favour of 

 the pavement. There is also another argument in its favour 

 which deserves notice, and that is, that it is not liable to harbour 

 snails, slugs, &c., like the box. 



The subject of paved gravel walks has recurred to us at this 

 time from the circumstance of having lately heard of the inven- 

 tion of a machine for dressing stones by steam, by which there 

 can be no doubt the price of flagstone will be everywhere consi- 

 derably lowered. This machine, which is called Hunter's Stone- 

 Planing Machine, has been in use at Arbroath about a year ; 

 and, last summer, it planed upwards of 100,000 superficial feet 

 of pavement. Some details respecting it will be found in the 

 Arch. Mag. for June (vol. ii. p. 283.). We are not able to state 

 whether the Arbroath pavement resists the action of frosts and 

 thaws as well as the Yoi'kshire pavement, but we can state, from 

 nearly twenty years' experience, that it is a complete non-con- 

 ductor of moisture ; having had above a thousand superficial feet 

 of it laid down, on a moist surface, as walks in the conservatories 

 which we at one tirne had at Bayswater, viz. from 1816 till 1 824 ; 

 and above 250 ft. in a back kitchen, from 1823 till the present 

 time. In neither case was there ever the slightest appearance of 



