128 GARDENS IN THE MAKING 



Steps and Stairways 



Changing levels constitute the garden's cadence, 

 and the steps and stairways form the bridge by which 

 we descend from the highest to the lowest notes of its 

 song. It is not enough for us to terrace the hillside 

 or plant the valley — we must make the communica- 

 tions between them, and thanks to the limitations 

 of the human footstep the size of each stair is 

 fairly constant and becomes a valuable unit of 

 scale in garden architecture. A flight of steps is 

 a graduated walk, broken at regular intervals by 

 the vertical and horizontal planes ; it is thus a 

 place of light and shadow ; it suggests, moreover, 

 the poetry of motion, and yet remains a stationary 

 link between an upper and a lower stage ; perhaps 

 its chief delight lies in its open invitation to ascend 

 or descend, and its promise of a changing view and 

 varying prospect. 



Yet, in spite of its essentially attractive qualities, 

 and although its potential beauty as an architectural 

 composition can scarcely be rivalled, the stairway is 

 commonly treated as of little account in the garden, 

 as though it were an object of mere utilitarian 



