GRASS SLOPES. 



41 



is indispensable for the protection of persons walking on 

 the platform. The best substitute for a parapet is a 

 low broad hedge^ or a border of shrubs formed along 

 the edge of the terrace : in some cases the border may- 

 be shaped into a sloping bank of considerable breadth^ 

 and the height of the waU proportionally reduced. The 

 union^ in the same terrace^ of the retaining wall and 

 the sloping grass bank seldom produces a good effect. 

 Their most suitable combination is when the wall is 

 made to support the lower portion of the bank ; but 

 when this plan is adopted, neither the wall nor the bank 

 should be high. Regularly sloped grass banks, sur- 

 mounted by a parapet, have a peculiarly incongruous 

 appearance : the walls or parapets look as if they wanted 

 a base, and the banks seem to have been piled up against 

 the lower parts of the walls to hide deformities. As the 

 parapets appear to rest on the edge of a sloping surface, 

 they present the very image of instability ; besides, on 

 the top of a grass bank they are not ordinarily required 

 for protection, nor, indeed, for any useful purpose. In 

 short, they are altogether in bad taste. 



Grass Slopes. — Terraces are often faced with grass 

 slopes instead of walls ; and though the resulting effect 

 is inferior, these slopes are very suitable for places where 

 a plain style of decoration is required, and particularly 

 at a distance from the mansion-house, as on the sides 

 of bowling-greens or in flower-gardens, and in the more 

 remote parts of the pleasure-grounds. It must be 

 admitted that a terrace with a regularly formed grass 

 bank of considerable depthlias mostly a bald appearance. 

 This arises partly from its surface being so plain as to 

 have no variety, and partly fi^om the absence of a 

 diversity in light and shade, particularly in those slopes 



