192 



CASSELL'S POPCLAE GAEDENINO. 



planted in regular lines or not, yet have most of the 

 nohle effects of fine avenues. But most of the rides 

 are so wound and curved through the woods as to 

 hring out all the richest features of the woods, 

 plantations, and near or distant scenery. Now the 

 ride skirts the boundary of the wood, and anon it 

 plunges into the dense shade or deep gloom of a 

 Scotch Pine forest, fifty, a hundred, two hundred 

 years old. Again, it passes through a, forest of Oak, 

 to he succeeded by one of Larch, Birch, or Beech. A 

 commanding plateau is reached, which affords a broad 

 view of grass and com fields, sandwiching each other 

 with green and gold far as the eye can reach ; and 

 soon after the ride plunges down a steep hill till the 

 deafening roar of a, broad river is heard, and its 

 rapid-running waters are seen to foam and dash 

 over its rough bed of boulders. On some estates 

 known to us in Perthshire the grass-rides exceed an 

 aggregate of twenty miles. 



For rides on horseback, drives in pony-phaetons 

 and carriages, there are no walks or roads so charm- 

 ing as grass-rides. Properly made and kept, they 

 are always accessible and fit for use, unless in the 

 very worst weather. 



On light dry. soils— and suoh are the majority of 

 those on which woods are planted — all that is need- 

 ful is to stake out the ground, level it throughout, cut 

 an open ditch on either side to the depth of a foot or 

 eighteen inches, sow choice grass-seeds in April at 

 the rate of oOlbs. per acre, roll heavily at times till 

 the grass gets well established, and mow once or 

 twice or more a year ever afterwards, with occasional 

 rolling should the surface get loose, and top-dressiug 

 should the grass get poor. The rides wiU grow 

 apace and remain in first-rate condition. Or the 

 lides may be formed at once by laying them down 

 with turves, a yard long, a foot wide, and an inch 

 thick. Earn and roll these home, and the ride will 

 be fit for use a few months after making. 



Through wet woods or plantations the ride should 

 be raised six inches or a foot above the surrounding 

 level ; brushwood, tUe, or stone drains should be run 

 into the ditches on either side ; the earth thoroughly 

 consolidated; the ride sown with seeds or roughly 

 laid with turf, such as may generally be found on 

 the spot, and treated as the others on light soil. 



On most estates the crop of hay off the grass rides 

 pays for their keeping. The making of rides costs 

 but little, as the work is done in winter, when labour 

 is plentiful ; and the pleasure derived from a gallop or 

 drive over elastic turf, in select company, through 

 the richest arboreal sylvan scenery, is simply in- 

 expressible. The sanitary advantages of rides as 

 exercising-grounds for children and adults probably 

 more than match their many features of interest and 

 beauty. 



Good making, as in the matter of stone and 

 gravel walks and roads, is the better half of perfect 

 keeping. StiU, as grass grows, and dead road ma- 

 terials do not (always excepting weeds, however), 

 of course their modes of keeping are widely dif- 

 ferent. The key to the perfect keeping of grass 

 walks consists in their perpetual cutting or mowing 

 and frequent rolling. Solidity of base and substance 

 and a short surface, are the surest means of making 

 and keeping turf walks or lawns in perfect condi- 

 ^tion. The closer and oftener, in reason, the grass is 

 shorn, the faster it grows and the more the stems 

 ramify in a horizontal direction. It is these under 

 side-growths that impart durability and elasticity 

 to grass walks and promenades. 



Now that we cut and roU simultaneously, and 

 with a rapidity impossible and undreamt of by the 

 best scythemen, there is no longer any excuse for 

 that indifferent keeping of grass walks which robs 

 them of full half their charm. The work is also 

 much better as weU as more quickly done, a weekly 

 mowing being all that is needed to keep grass 

 promenades in perfect order. 



It may also be needful occasionally to water them 

 during parching droughts ; but watering is rather an 

 exceptional means of culture than a factor to be 

 taken into serious account in the ordinary keeping of 

 grass walks or avenues. 



Of course, too, in the autumn and winter, when, 

 mowing may not be necessary, the broom, rake, or 

 sweeping-machine will be used to remove all dirt, 

 debris, worm-casts, and fallen leaves, as either of 

 these, allowed to accumulate on the surface, not only 

 destroy the beauty, but also injure or destroy the 



Top-dressing of Grass Walks. — Of all the 



slovenly receipts for the purpose of renewing or 

 maintaining the vigour and verdure of these, that 

 of leaving the grass mown off on the surface is 

 the worst. This modern method is as slovenly as 

 it is inefficient. "When well made and properly 

 kept, grass walks will last for years without any 

 dressing whatever. And when they show signs 

 of exhaustion, a surface sprinkling of rich compost, 

 half an inch or so thick, applied in November, and 

 raked in, is the best possible stimulator of weakly- 

 growing grass ; or the dressing may be applied in 

 March or April, and, if the grass seems thin, a fair 

 sprinkling of the finer lawn grass-seeds raked and 

 rolled in with the dressing. "Where such dressings 

 are objected to, a sprinkling of guano or carbonate 

 of soda applied in showery weather revives the 

 drooping grasses at once to their pristine vigour, 

 verdure, and beauty. 

 "When such means of restoration have been 



