THE COTTAGE GARDENER AND COUNTRY GENTLEMAN’S COMPANION.— June 17,1850. 
21‘2 
much of the former is present, the character of the grounds 
will be gloomy: and if the latter preponderates, a mean 
appearance will be the result. In a happy combination and 
relative proportion of these prime elements of garden scenery 
consists much of its beauty. Nor must the walks be for 
gotten in this studied combination. They should take a 
prominent position. Between them and the shrubberies 
there must exist a near connection. Each should seem to 
be a natural attendant on the other. But these chief fea¬ 
tures of a garden, viz., walks, shrubberies, and lawn, with 
other accidental concomitants, as water, buildings, statuary, 
rustic seats, flower-baskets, stock-work, <fce., will best be 
treated under separate heads, though the space devoted to 
each must necessarily be brief; and, first, of Walks :— 
Their direction should claim especial attention when 
forming a new place. They should comprise, as it were, 
the skeleton upon which the general grounds are to be 
moulded. From them the principal views, both within and | 
beyond the boundary of the garden proper, will be almost 
exclusively enjoyed; and from this circumstance their direc¬ 
tion should be a paramount consideration when arranging 
ornamental grounds in any situation whatever. All the 
more advantageous spots must be seized upon to bring the 
spectator in presence of the best views in the course of a 
ramble round the place. In carrying out this, the force of 
what was urged in a former paper with reference to deciding 
upon the main features of every garden upon the ground 
itself, rather than trusting merely to a pleasing combination 
of walks, shrubberies, and flower-beds, as indicated upon a 
plan without actual reference to the character of the situa¬ 
tion on which it is to be worked out, will be appreciated. 
Much has been said and written upon the necessity, or 
rather, expediency of concealing, as much as possible, the 
walks in ornamental grounds; and in very many instances 
much expense has, as I think, been unnecessarily incurred 
in reducing it to practice. If walks are well made, and their 1 
lines of direction easy and graceful, they become by no 
means unimportant items in the general whole. A bold 
sweep of walk, with its proper appendages, ever forms a very 
pleasing view, whether in reality or in pictorial representa¬ 
tions of garden scenery. Of course, I do not mean that all 
the walks of a garden should be studiously displayed. What 
I allude to principally is, the importance which many per¬ 
sons attach to the concealment of every walk in a garden, 
which is often carried to an extent bordering on affecta¬ 
tion. Yet, in most gardens of limited extent, as well as in 
many others, under certain circumstances, instances will 
occur in which it will be very desirable to conceal one walk 
from another; but, as a general rule, such a practice need 
not be studiously attended to. Walks are not only a neces¬ 
sary, but a highly characteristic feature in a garden; and 
there cannot, certainly, be any just reason assumed; upon 
any principle whatever, for rendering a garden destitute in 
appearance of what is so essential in reality; at least, such 
is my view of the case. But although gravel walks are 
capable of constituting very pleasing items among the vari¬ 
ous matters that go to make up the completeness of a gar¬ 
den, they may, on the other hand, be very readily converted 
into blemishes, as they often are. A line of gravel winding 
across a lawn in a series of tortuous and inelegant curves, 
without any real or apparent cause for such meanderings, is 
l always an offensive object, and one that impresses the mind 
with an idea of littleness, of meanness, no matter how fine 
the situation it may occupy, or how beautiful the gardens to 
which it belongs. Tbe direction of a walk should always 
seem to arise from some cause. The object for every devi¬ 
ation in its course should be apparent, and seem to grow 
out of the circumstances natural to the situation ; and if no 
perceptible cause docs naturally exist for any such deviation, 
it is the business of art to create one. 
Tbe width of walks, too, is a matter worthy of a little con¬ 
sideration ; for, beyond the comfort and convenience of a 
walk of ample breadth, a garden derives no little importance 
from this apparently trifling circumstance. A walk of no 
greater breadth than three or four feet has a mean and con¬ 
fined appearance; and it imparts that undesirable feature to 
the garden in which it occurs, especially if the lawns are 
broad and the shrubberies extensive. Except in gardens of 
very limited extent, seven feet is by no means too wide for 
an ordinary walk. That width affords ample space for three 
or four persons to walk abreast; and such a walk, if laid 
down with bold and well-defined curves, will give an uncon¬ 
strained aspect to the lawns and shrubberies about it. 
Walks should never branch from each other at very acute 
angles; for, independent of other considerations, such an 
arrangement is generally more or less inconvenient, and 
is at the same time, rarely necessary; and if the space be¬ 
tween two walks, at such a junction, were to be planted, it 
could not be successfully accomplished. Again, the common 
practice of gradually blending one walk into another, and 
thereby creating a large and very unnecessary space of 
gravel at tbe junction, should be avoided, if a neat and 
artistic character is to be preserved. Another very common 
error in tbe construction of walks is their convexity. To 
such a height (I did not intend a pun) is this, in some 
instances, carried, that when two persons arc walking side 
by side, both are subject to great discomfort. The only 
comfortable position, (and that is often questionably so,) 
on such walks, is immediately in the middle—on the top of 
the ridge as it were. No ordinary walk should rise more 
than one inch in the middle; i. c., the side should be one 
inch below the grass margin, and the middle level with the 
grass. This is always a safe rule for guidance. The very 
great difference in appearance between such a walk, and one 
on the convex principle, will be obvious at a glance; the 
latter is both inelegant and inconvenient, the former just 
the reverse. Tbe grass margin of walks should never pre¬ 
sent a harsh line of bare earth; the grass itself should be 
brought down to the gravel, or nearly so; but, nevertheless, 
the margin must be well defined. 
The Shrubberies and walks should, as before observed, seem 
naturally attendant on each other; the latter will, therefore, 
in a great measure, guide the arrangement of the former; 
for, as a general rule, the shrubberies should be confined to 
the outside of the lawns, of which the walks arc the primary 
divisions and boundaries. It is the office of the shrubberies, 
too, to throw into a symmetrical and well-balanced figure 
every detached lawn, of which a large garden will present 
many; for, no matter whether a garden scene owes its 
attractiveness to a simple picturesque or to a geometrical 
arrangement, if it is pleasing, symmetry will be found to 
be an important element in producing that pleasure. I 
need scarcely observe that symmetry is not necessarily 
formality. A geometric garden, as well as a building, may 
possess both qualities combined ; but, on the other hand, a 
picturesque scene may be wholly destitute of formality, as 
it necessarily must be, to become entitled to the term 
picturesque, and yet possess symmetry in an eminent degree. 
Gardens which are characterised by their intricacy, rather 
than by large lawns and detached shrubberies, are apt to 
degenerate into mere labyrinths of walks, confined between 
uniform hedge-like belts. This should be avoided, because 
intricacy and presumed extent may be, and very often are, 
purchased at the expense of freedom. The belts of shrubs, 
in such gardens, should be frequently broken on either side, 
to allow of voluntary escape for the eye as well as the foot, 
and to banish all feeling of restraint, which is the speedy 
forerunner of satiety and disgust. Such breaks ought 
always to he made where something pleasing can be brought 
into view, something to interest, something to destroy the 
monotony, which is too characteristic of our gardens in 
general. Nor is it necessary to command distant views for 
such purposes; a handsome specimen on the lawn, or in a 
neighbouring shrubbery, a flower-bed, a rustic basket, or a 
pole of Roses, will effect the result intended.— Geokge 
Lovell, Landscape Gardener , Bag shot. 
(To be continued.) 
THIRTEENTH ANNIVERSARY DINNER OF 
THE GARDENER'S ROYAL BENEVOLENT 
INSTITUTION. 
This anniversary was held at the London Tavern, Bishops- 
gate-street, on Wednesday the 11th inst., when the chair 
was occupied by Sir Joseph 1’axton, M.P., supported by Sir 
Charles Fox, Edward Crossley, Esq., M.P., Lieut. Paxton, 
J. J. Mechi, Esq., Arthur Henderson, Esq., and numerous 
other gentlemen interested in horticulture. 
