66 SUBURBAN GARDENS 
a blight upon beauty, however bravely one may 
seek to neutralize it. Only by toning it down 
with a gravel space from eight to twelve inches 
wide on either side is it possible to qualify its 
glaring, garish, utilitarian unpleasantness suf- 
ficiently to make it anything but an offense 
anywhere within private grounds. And even 
with this modification it should never be used 
except for a main entrance, which is always 
conceded to be semi-public in its character. 
The material par excellence for interior 
walks is brick, laid on a bed of sand, this on a 
bed of cinders. The old-time natural flag 
stones are next in choice to the bricks, while 
gravel, properly laid, always makes a walk 
little inferior to any. This latter must be care- 
fully railed in, however, as old garden beds 
were railed, to prevent its scattering into the 
turf along its margins; or else the turf must 
stand well above it. The latter is a more pleas- 
ing measure to insure the confinement of the 
gravel, perhaps, and quite as effective if the 
walk itself is well crowned and good drainage 
at either side is provided. 
Across and through the garden, especially 
if it be small, there is nothing so pleasing to 
the eye and so generally a finish and orna- 
ment to the design as walks of close cut turf. 
