11.] 



ENCLOSING, LAYING OUT. 



27 



40. The borders e are, as has been seen in the explanations, ten 

 feet wide ; and the earth in them ought to have a little declivity 

 from the wall : it may be very trifling, but it ought to be a little. 

 As to the plats f, g, h, k, they are for the growth of garden- 

 plants, in general ; and the parts of them best suited for different 

 plants, at different seasons of the year, will be spoken of under the 

 heads of the particular plants. The paths and walks ought to be of 

 gravel, if possible ; for, whatever expense this may be attended 

 with in certain cases, there are hardly any other means of having 

 dry paths and walks in winter. Grasg is very bad, for it must not 

 only be walked upon, bnt frequently wheeled uponwih barrows 

 heavily laden, and especially in winter-time ; and this soon makes 

 them a mass of dirt and of ugliness. But, you cannot have gravel- 

 walks or paths, to be kept in any thing like order, unless you make 

 theni well in the first place, and protect them against the falling 

 down of earth upon them for ever afterwards. Therefore, when you 

 have laid out the garden by lines and stumps, the place or places 

 for the walks and paths should be dug out to the depth of all the 

 top-soil, which ought to be thrown over the adjoining ground on 

 both sides, and made perfectly level at the bottom. Then there 

 should be a bed of brick-bats, or of large flint, or of other stones ; 

 and upon the top of that bed, about six inches of clean gravel. 



4 1 . The next thing is to make efficient provision for preventing 

 the earth from the borders and plats, which ought to be about four 

 inches higher than the tops of the walks, from tumbling into the 

 walks when digging, hoeing, and other operations take place ; but 

 especially digging ; for it is impossible to dig the ground close to 

 a walk which has not a sufficient protection, without bringing dirt 

 upon the walk : all the shovelling in the world will not get it off* 

 again clean, unless you go down so deep as to take up part of the 

 gravel with the dirt ; so that your walk must soon become a dirty- 

 looking affair, in which weeds and grass will be everlastingly com- 

 ing : or you must take away, little by little, the gravel, by shovelling, 

 till you have flung it pretty nearly all upon the borders and flats^ 

 and thereby not only destroyed your walk, but injured your culti- 

 vated land. To prevent these very great troubles and injuries, you 

 must resolve to have an efficient protection for the walk ,* and this, I 

 venture to assert, is to be obtained by no other means than by the 

 use of BOX. Many contrivances have been resorted to for the 

 purpose of avoiding this pretty little tree, which, like all other 



