GENERAL PRINCIPLES 17 
not lead the designer to utilise it for promiscuous bank 
making. It is seldom that a close survey of the ground 
will not reveal points at which it is possible to secure 
variety, without altering the general contour to any 
appreciable extent. 
Garden paths nearly always cause monotony when too 
much of their length is seen at once. This must not be 
considered as in any way deprecatory to the straight 
walk, than which often nothing is more satisfactory. 
If the path is straight, there should be compensating 
influences in the way of well grown plants or shrubs 
along its sides to attract our attention. Where these are 
impossible, the walk should be made to bend slightly, 
occupying the curve with a group of flowering shrubs, 
or some other suitable screen to hide its continuation 
from view. The garden paths should most certainly 
follow the varied levels of the ground, and nothing can 
be worse than to attempt to fill up the hollows and shave 
off the gentle elevations in order to produce a dead level. 
This is the very way to engender the monotony, which 
we are trying to dispel. A wild mountain path, or the 
track through some woodland glade, never lacks variety, 
simply because the feet that made it followed the line of 
easiest gradient. In nine cases out of ten, the ugly walk 
is the result of direct transgression of this simple rule, 
and all that is needed to effect an improvement is the 
reversion of the ground to its old level. 
The variety obtainable by the judicious employment 
of living trees and plants is so infinite, that there is 
no excuse for neglecting their friendly aid when planning 
the several parts of the garden. A certain spirit of con- 
servatism seems to prevail among modern gardeners, and 
of the thousands of beautiful subjects which exist for our 
benefit, not a tithe of the number are pressed into service. 
Take, for example, that large and beautiful family, the 
Flowering Shrubs, how very imperfectly is their value 
B 
