Cc 
FPeCR” P: 
of the Choice of GRAVEL 
O have good Gravel, “the "Walks mut Be 
laid with Judgment’; and as this is the 
Care in new Gardens, it will always be worth 
while to take it up, and new make the Walks 
in old ones, where they “are found bad. Tho’ 
we are famous in England for fine Gravel, yet 
we have alfo fuch as is bad; and there will a great 
deal of the future Succefs depend er the Choice | 
in this -Article. 
Gravel is a Collection of fmall Pebbles Ae 
Flints' with. more or lefs of. a clayey Loam 
among them. We have Pebbles in vaft Mafies — 
with none of this Loam, but they do not pro- 
perly conftitute what is called Gravel ; they will’ 
never lie firm in a Walk, neither is ‘their Colour 
agreeable. 7 
Putney Heath abounds ‘with thefe; arid there are 
Garden Walks at Putney, ‘and in other'near Places, 
laid with them, -but they have a dull dingy 
Afpet; the Pebbles lie loofe ‘with Hollows 
and Gaps between them, and. the Walks have 
hot the Appearance of Gravel. A great deal 
of rolling anfwers very little Purpore they will 
never Ne’ firm, and ‘it is always troublefore ‘to 
walk upon them. This is one Extream | in the 
Nature of Gravel; and fuch is found in ‘many 
other Places as well as that ‘juft nam’d :°on ‘the 
other hand we have Gravel in which the Loar is 
too abundant ; ‘and this makes Walks | etow 
wet in the leaft rainy Séafoh, and ate ditty to 
the Feet: neither do they lie ‘firm tnlefs in dry | their Colour ; 
| ioc. and with ‘very g60d Management. 
A ‘Gravel fhould be chofen Which is Of a 
middle Quality between thefe, ‘neither with too 
little nor t60 much of the Loam’; nor ‘is this 
all: the Loam muft be of a good Coldur, 
or the Walks will never be agreeable to the 
Eye; and there muft be Flints as well as 
Pebbles, or it will not form a compact Body. : 
We have Gravels in which the Loatn is 
brown, and others in which it is of the Colour 
of rufty Iron; both thefe are very difagreeable. 
What we expect in a Garden Walk is a Clean 
_yellow; and this depends moft of all upon the 
Colour of the Loam in its Compofition. 
The Ufe of the Flints is very evident, Pebbles 
ate’ round or nearly fo, “and “a ‘Parcel of" round 
CH A 
Loam, ‘ahd work this well with ir: 
will be too foft. 
Bodies 6 not likely to: toll’ ifto a firm Walk 4 
the Flints, on the contrary, are in Fragments of 
all Shapes and Sizes; thefe fill up the “Hollows; 
anid make the Loam lie in fimaller Parcels, and 
better diftributed.. By. this the Gardener will 
know what Kind of Gravel he is to ~~. and 
he will fee the Reafon. — 
It muft be fuch as has a on Oeaiicy 
of Flints among the Pebbles, and a moderate 
Proportion of a yellow Lioam: this, when well 
managed, will bind like a Rock, and jit is this 
which has. given us the Credit of the fineft 
Walks in the World. If it happens that thefe 
is not any Gravel anfwering this Defcription 
in the Neighbourhodd of the Place; the 
Gardener muft be at the Pains to mend 
fach as ‘there is, ‘by an Addition of what it Wants. 
If ic confifts only of Flints’and Pebbles, let ‘him 
mix up fome yéllow Clay and Sand into a Kind of 
if there be 
Sand loofe anes the Pebbles, et him add only 
Clay. | 
There will require a great deal of TONE to 
mix up a dtie Quantity of this well but when it 
is done, ‘the Work very well‘anfwers the Charge, 
for it ‘will be ‘equal to any natural Gravel: a licele 
Lime may be very properly added to thefe Gra- 
vels in the working up, and will make them bind 
the fafter, but the Quantity muft be fmall, or it 
will ‘give ther a ‘crumbly Hardnefs, or umpair 
the People who dig Gravel, fift it 
in feveral ‘Degrees of Finenefs ; but for Walks no- 
thing ‘more ‘is ‘required than taking out a few of 
the largeft Stones; forall fmall or all large Gravel 
will ‘never anfwer fo well as that which is mixed 
as we find ‘it ‘in ‘Nature. 
all the fimall has been fkreened from it, there 
In the large, when 
will be Crevices and Hollows too open; and on 
the contrary, the fmall, when this is feparated, 
The large, like Ballaft ‘on the 
Roads, will want Loam, and the {mall will 
have too much of it: for in a Manner all the 
Loam will run through the Skreens. Therefore 
where thefe have beeh injudicioufly feparated, 
| the only Thing to be done ‘properly, is to mix 
them again together. 
MESSI EASTER BAB ASSESS RS Ne SEAS RSA SOARE RAGE 
Bi ist, « 
Of laying the WA aA, K ce 
Good Gravel being chofen, and the Place 
“£'X and Breadth of the Walk marked out, 
the next Confideration is the laying it. 
Let the Gardener obfetve what he {ees amifs in 
t 
Aut Walks of others, ‘and mend it in thefe he has 
now an Opportunity of making from the Begin- 
ning. 
He will find that Weeds are a continual ‘De- 
formity 
