2 lO 
PARK AND CEMETERY. 
WALKS AND DRIVES. 
Nature forms no roads. They are the work of 
men and animals, and would undoubtedly proceed 
from point to point in straight lines it obstructions 
of various kinds did not interfere and cause a dev- 
iation. This fact the landscape gardener has re- 
alized; he uses shrubbery and masses of trees to 
obstruct the course of his walks and drives and 
thus gives origin to pleasing curves. 
There are two distinct modes of laying out 
grounds, the Geometric or Artificial, and the 
Natural, the former being the sponsor of the straight 
formally planted avenue, and the latter of the cur- 
ved drive. In the earilier years oflandscape design, 
the man of wealth surrounded his home with 
improvements distinctly different from the natural 
scenery about him. Fountains, statuary, clipped 
hedges, balustrades, and costly flights of steps took 
the place of true natural improvements. It was 
here that we found the broad, geometrically straight 
avenues, giving grand vistas from one part of the 
estate to the other, and offering unmistakable 
evidences of wealth. In the latter, or natural style 
of art, the principles of which are in common use 
to-day, the demands are that a drive or walk should 
be as natural and artistic as possible. By the use 
of moderate curves, these requirements may be 
answered, but at the same time, the main object of 
the approach, its use, must always be considered. 
As the main object of the approach is its use, 
it should be the most direct and the shortest distance 
between the highway and the house, for no visitor 
wishes to feel that he is being made to travel a 
greater distance than is necessary. At the same 
time there should be a similar relation between the 
house and the drive externally, that there is inter- 
nally between the hall and the entrance proper. 
When we enter a house, we gain our first impres- 
sion from its hall. T, he nature and circumstances 
of its occupants are indicated to us by its furnishing 
and appearance. The same is true of the drive. 
Here the visitor gains his first impression of the 
grounds, and of the house externally. He is not 
satisfied if the drive carries him through a greater 
distance than is necessary or if his first view is not 
a pleasant one. He should not be allowed to lose 
sight of the house after it has once been presented 
to his view, for this being his destination, it should 
be kept before his mind. These first impressions 
may seem trivial, but our first opinion is generally 
a lasting one, and therefore should be pleasant. 
The place of entrance of an approach does much 
to increase its effect, and if the point where it is to 
leave the highway, be not already determined upon, 
and past alteration, it should be so chosen as to 
afford a sufficient drive through the grounds before 
arriving at the house, to give the stranger some 
idea of the extent of the property, to allow of an 
agreeable diversity of surface, and lastly to be of 
ready access to and from the house. This point 
being decided upon, the other, the house, being 
stationary, it remains to lay out the drive with such 
gradual curves as will appear easy and graceful. 
The two extremes are fixed, and as I have said 
in the preceding paragraph, it now but remains to 
lay out the road. This must be done with the two 
main principles in view, which liave been laid down 
for the formation of an approach. First, that the 
curve should never be so great or lead over surfaces 
so uneven as to make it disagreeable to drive upon, 
and second, that the road should never curve with- 
out some reason, either real or apparant. The 
latter of these rules while no more important than 
the former must be obeyed, for nothing is more 
unmeaning than to see a drive, winding here and 
there over the lawn towards a house, without the 
least reason for its curves. To free ourselves from 
this error, we are not obliged to return to the 
straight lined road, for reason may be given to a 
curve or bend by planting a mass or group of trees 
and shrubs, so arranged as to make it appear 
necessary for the road to wind around them. The 
mass maybe planted so as to make it appear necessary 
to pass*around it, or what is often much better, to 
pass through it. The latter method may be accom- 
plished by planting upon both sides of the road, 
and is often more desirable as the group is given 
more permanent character, and therefore more likely 
to impress the one as being a virgin growth, causing 
the road to pass through its openings to avoid de- 
stroying the group. The cluster or mass of shrub- 
bery should, in all cases, be in proportion to curve. 
From what has been said, it must not be under- 
stood that straight roads are inadmissible, for-it is 
quite the reverse. There are many locations where 
the straight line should be preferred, as a matter of 
taste in design. As a connecting link between the 
strictly perpendicular and horizontal lines of a build- 
ing, and the irregular surfaces surrounding it, a per- 
fectly straight walk or drive is in the best taste and 
adds greatly to the effect of the architecture, while a 
frequently curving walk detracts from it. The 
same may be said of a walk both ends of which are 
visible at the same time, for in this case especially, 
the tendency would be to follow a straight line. 
Imagine making a number of lines or curves in 
passing up a fifty foot walk, when in a hurry to get 
from the entrance gate to the house. Our first 
inclination would be a straight line, and such it 
should be. In this case, beauty depends upon 
harmony rather than contrast, and more than either 
upon utility. 
