CHAPTER IV 
AVENUES, VISTAS, AND LAWNS 
Formal 
Vistas. 
One of the first necessities of a public garden of the character of Kew, 
thronged as it is at certain times, is to plan it so that the crowds 
entering the gates may automatically dissolve. The best 
way of effecting this is to make vistas and avenues inter- 
secting each other and connecting together all parts of 
the garden, yet each leading, if possible, to some notable feature. 
But whilst in this sense these avenues and vistas may be regarded as 
thoroughfares, they are also necessary in Kew, from a landscape 
point of view, to give that sense of spaciousness and dignity which 
the gardens from their size and importance demand. Where Nature 
has provided no hills and valleys, and where the lie of the land is as 
flat as it is at Kew, it is only by means of these long open sweeps that 
the distance of view can be obtained which in more favoured places 
is secured by natural diversities of level. 
The three chief vistas at Kew are the broad gravelled walk lead- 
ing from the Main Entrance to the Pond, with the water-tower as 
a terminal ; the grass avenue known as the Pagoda Vista, which 
extends from the Palm House to the Pagoda, and is planted with 
two rows of varied and interesting trees ; and the Sion Vista, also 
grassed, which commences at the Palm House too, and reaches to 
the river Thames. The view, however, extends more than twice as 
far — over the river and across Sion House Park. The terrace at 
the river end of the Sion Vista opens up the finest panorama in Kew. 
Beneath, but separated from the gardens by a ha-ha, flows the 
Thames ; on the other side is the park of Sion House, with its herds 
of grazing cattle, and woods in the distance ; whilst to the left stretches 
a noble reach of the Thames with the town of Isleworth at the end, 
suggesting sometimes, in the misty evening, a riverside mediaeval 
city — a romantic conception which a closer acquaintance, unhappily, 
dispels. These three avenues, all formal in character, but of a breadth 
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