LANDSCAPE GARDENING. 
295 
In order that you may have a better idea of the construction of the 
road, I add a sketch of a transverse section of it. 
General width of the road from A to B nine feet. A cross drain under the road from 
C to D one foot deeper than the bed of the road. 
This is the mode of forming carriage roads on the Fairfax Hall estate, 
and which has been executed by the present proprietor and his fore¬ 
fathers for very many years past. It is on the M‘Adam principle ; but 
it was practised here long before that celebrated projector was born ; and 
over his method (as practised upon some of the turnpike roads) it has 
one advantage, namely, no part of the surface is ever intended to be 
longitudinally level; because a dead level remains much longer wet 
after rain, and much more liable to wear into holes, than an ever-so- 
slightly undulating surface. 
While noticing the carriage road, I may as well, at the same time, 
state how the gravel walks are made and kept in the garden, as described 
to me by the gardener himself since I began this letter. 
The kitchen garden is a parallelogram sloping easily towards the 
south. The walks run in the same direction as the walls, and are made 
to partake of the general inclination of the surface. As the roots of 
fruit trees extend themselves to considerable distances horizontally, it 
is right they should meet with no obstruction in passing under the 
walks ; and therefore, instead of making the walks upon deep trenches, 
filled with all sorts of rubbish digged or raked up in the garden when it 
was made, as used to be the old custom, they are formed on the general 
surface, in an excavation no deeper than about eight or nine inches. 
This excavation is levelled and rendered very firm at bottom, and 
covered with about an inch of pure pit sand, and afterwards with gravel, 
to the required height. The gravel used for this purpose is what is 
called run gravel ; as it is digged from the pit, it is thrown together in 
a conical heap, the coarsest parts and largest pebbles running off to the 
base, whence they are every now-and-then raked away. This method 
of preparing the gravel renders it very uniform in consistence ; and 
when laid, levelled, and put in form by the spade, and immediately 
trodden across and lengthways with the feet, to show and fill up the 
