Art Out-of-Doors 
approach may diverge to the right to avoid 
a beautiful tree ; if it must then turn again 
to the left to reach the house in a conven- 
ient and pleasing way, this fact is its own 
sufficient explanation. 
Whatever the objects chosen to justify the 
bends in a road, they should not be flower- 
beds. Anything which forces a carriage to 
turn from the direct path should be a real 
and a permanent obstacle — something over 
which wheels could not pass, and which 
could not be removed without destroying 
it. To make a flower-bed play the part of 
an obstruction to vehicles gives a deplorable 
look of triviality and wilfulness; yet there 
are few objects so often seen in the bend of 
a road which crosses a lawn. The truth is, 
probably, that the road has been curved 
without thought of supplying a reason for 
the curve, simply because it could not be 
carried straight or because of the belief that 
a curve, managed in any way, would be 
beautiful ; and then the flower-bed has been 
thought of because the elbow in the grass 
seemed to offer a “ good place ” for it. 
But its trivial, ephemeral nature is not the 
102 
