FLOWER-GARDENS AND PLEASURE-GROUNDS. 



271 



belts being the attainment of perfect specimens, 

 any undue crowding of the trees themselves 

 or with nurse trees would defeat that object. 

 In outlying belts and groups, which it may be 

 desirable to encourage in height of stem and 

 whose growth of lower branches is of less im- 

 portance, the nurse plants may stay longer on 

 the land, provided they undergo a certain 

 amount of shortening back of their branches. 

 Such nurse plants when cut down are sufficiently 

 stout and long to serve as stakes for various pur- 

 poses. The removal of deciduous nurse plants 

 should be done with a sharp mattock, so as to 

 cut through the stem below the ground level, 

 and thus prevent the growth of suckers ; whereas 

 Conifers may be simply cut off as low as pos- 

 sible with a bill-hook. The extent of the plant- 

 ing now under consideration, and which may be 

 looked upon as combining shelter with orna- 

 ment, will, as a matter of course, depend upon 

 the size of the grounds and other circumstances 

 of a local character. 



Approach Road. — The course which the ap- 

 proach road is to take must be well considered, 

 and this again must be determined by the nature 

 of the surroundings. As, however, road-making, 



Fig. 337.— Cross-section of Carriage Drive or road for heavy traffic, showing 

 side drain-pipes, rubble foundation, and finer material at the surface. 



when well done, is expensive, and the position 

 occupied by such a road as that here referred to 

 has a considerable influence over other details 

 in the general arrangement, it is a matter that 



Fig. 338.— Cross-section of Garden Walk, not intended for heavy wheeled 

 traffic. In heavy soils two side drains should be substituted for the central 

 drain. 



should be fully considered before being carried 

 out. One principle may be safely laid down as I 

 to the position a carriage-drive is to occupy — it 

 should not take such a line, if it can be avoided, I 

 as will cut in half or divide the park or grounds; I 

 neither should it skirt the boundary of the I 

 grounds so closely as to permit of the extreme 

 outskirts being seen from it; neither should it, 

 in the case of very extensive grounds, follow a 



roundabout course that would have the appear- 

 ance of increasing its length without adequate 

 reason. The line of road when not straight 

 should curve gracefully, but unmeaning devia- 

 tions should be avoided. In its construction 

 the first essential is to have its bed well drained 

 by means of drain -pipes laid just below the 

 bottom, and on both sides of the road. The 

 foundation should be made with a sufficient 

 depth of good hard material — not less than a 

 foot or 15 inches in thickness. The bottom of 

 a road should be slightly convex, so that if it 

 consist of retentive soil the water is conducted 

 towards the drains. Burned clay, which is 

 generally known as ballast, and chalk, make 

 excellent materials for the foundation, being 

 porous and dry. If on 8 inches of this is laid 

 about 7 inches of broken granite or blue rag, 

 with an inch or two of fine gravel of a warm 

 brown colour on the top, a road will be formed 

 that will both look and wear well, means being 

 of course provided (grips, or small sinks and 

 cess-pits) to ensure the rapid draining away of 

 some of the water falling on the surface. 



Walks. — The course of the main road or drive 

 having been determined, it is necessary to con- 

 sider the position which the different walks are 

 to occupy. The appearance of a place depends 

 very much on these being laid out in the best 

 positions and with due regard to utility; and 

 they should always be so placed as to have the 

 appearance of being necessary. If a walk be 

 formed, as is sometimes the case, where it has 

 no obvious use, it would be much better dis- 

 pensed with. Care must be taken not to cut 

 up or intersect unnecessarily the open spaces 

 of lawn, for a broad expanse of turf is much 

 more effective than when divided by a walk, 

 unless, indeed, the walk be hidden from the 

 best points of view in a shallow depression 

 of the lawn, the eye being thus carried over 

 it from the turf on one side to that on the 

 other. This is a device which may be tole- 

 rated when there is an absolute necessity that 

 a walk should take that particular line. Where 

 curves are introduced there should always be 

 an apparent reason for them. AVhere there 

 is not actually some object, such as a clump 

 of shrubs, or a single shrub or tree, to avoid 

 which the course of the walk has been di- 

 verted, something of the sort should be intro- 

 duced, otherwise the departure from the direct 

 line is devoid of meaning, and on that account 

 objectionable. 



There is no part of a demesne where a greater 

 necessity exists for good well-made walks than in 



