September, 1906 



AMERICAN HOMES AND GARDENS 



167 



The More Imposing the Architecture, the Straighter Should 

 Be the Road 



your motor in at its first gear or drive your horses up to the 

 front door all winded and blown. Widen your entrance so 

 that you hardly feel the turning of your wheels. A frequent 

 and felicitous method of doing this is by breaking the angle 

 formed by the entrance proper and the road outside by a 

 semicircular or elliptical transition, flanked perhaps by 

 gate lodges or masonry, or the whole semicircle bordered 

 by a design of gates, posts, wall and buildings, forming 

 a unit converging toward the central feature of the main 

 entrance. 



I emphasize the importance of effacing all suggestion of 

 abruptness. By this I mean there must never be too marked 

 a difference between the entrance and the surrounding land- 

 scape. One need neither lose importance nor emphasis by 

 an intelligent use of the correct materials and the right 

 scheme. Nothing could be more harmonious or in better 

 keeping with the environs than certain entrances in which the 

 natural materials at hand have been employed in their con- 



Roads Should Be Laid Out to Suit the Character of the 

 Surrounding Land 



struction; the rubble wall, with the stones and boulders gath- 

 ered from the adjoining fields, and similar in character, tone 

 and effect to the walls separating lots of the adjoining 

 countrysides, has perhaps been merely laid up with greater 

 care, often laid dry, without any cement whatever, or cap- 

 stone, or coping — this built without too abrupt a curve or 

 high a transition into your gateposts or arches — while over 

 the whole creep tendrils from the vines which for centuries 

 have covered the adjoining rocks. If you can thus work hand 

 in hand with nature, trying to blend your efforts with her mar- 

 vels, the opportunity should never be lost. In a similar way 

 simple and happy effects may be attained by entering an un- 

 pretentious place through a gateway of rough posts and 

 sticks, the arch or trelliswork covered with wistaria, crimson 

 rambler, honeysuckle, or ivy, which will soon disguise all 

 but its own glory. 



If your gateway or entrance is so near the house that the 

 two may be comprised at a glance I believe it is often sue- 



J& 



v V - 



SWL; 



An Unbroken Avenue of Trees is Better Than a Fence 



The Curve Should Not Be Too Abrupt 



