78 SUBURBAN GARDENS 
curves, if it have them, and its general direc- 
tion will be determined by its point of depar- 
ture from the sidewalk. The formula of the 
general rule, so far as a general rule may be 
formulated, therefore is : never pass the house 
entrance to reach the entrance to the place. 
Supplement this by a rule to go as directly as 
possible from gate to front door, especially on 
small grounds. 
Garden entrances themselves, or gates, have 
even greater possibilities as regards first im- 
pressions than walks. Indeed they may very 
nearly make or mar a place, as far as its street 
aspect is concerned, for they have a capacity 
for expressing very accurately the qualities 
which lie beyond them; curiously enough, they 
seldom err. I have never found an inhospi- 
table gateway guarding a generous, warm- 
blooded man’s doorway; neither have I ever 
failed to find the sort of person I have learned 
to look for beyond the arrogant, the mean, the 
splurging, or the silly entrance. So let us look 
well to our home-portals; they are all-reveal- 
ing. 
But first of all let us make sure that we have 
them. No yawning intermissions in fence or 
hedge, with nothing to close them, will do; 
neither will fine gateposts and gate, with no 
