October, 1922 
47 
THE APPROACH TO THE HOUSE 
If the Entrance Drive Is Made Easy and Attractive the First Impression 
Of a Country Place Will Be a Happy One 
P 
LANNIXG the approach to a house 
is by no means a simple matter. A 
host of details, practical and esthetic, 
have to be considered; the advantages and 
defects of many possible kinds of treatment 
have to be carefully weighed and a choice 
made. It would be impossible within the 
limits of this article, or even within limits 
of a book, to discuss all the conceivable treat¬ 
ments of entrances and approaches. Every 
individual site demands an individual treat¬ 
ment, and all that we can do here is to make 
a few useful generalizations, and to illus¬ 
trate some typical examples of good treat- 
L UTTON ABBOTTS WOOD 
ment in the various kinds of driveways. 
The first question which the designer of 
an approach has to decide is whether the 
treatment shall be, generally speaking, for¬ 
mal or informal. The answer to this ques¬ 
tion depends, of course, on site and circum¬ 
stances. Certain sites demand the informal 
approach of a curving drive, such as hill¬ 
side positions where a straight approach 
would be too steeply graded to be practicable. 
On the whole, however, except in the 
circumstances set out above, the informal 
approach is not so satisfactory as the formal 
or semi-formal. This is particularly notice- 
aide in small properties where the distance 
between road and house is short, and an 
attempt has been made by a naturalistic 
treatment to make it appear long. There is 
no need to dwell on the dismal impression 
produced by suburban drives that twist un¬ 
necessarily between vague masses of conifers 
and shrubs to end in a curving sweep with a 
central grass plot, and, perhaps (relic of 
late-Hayesian taste) a formidable bed of 
cannas in the middle of the plot. The defects 
of this sort of approach are obvious. In a 
small space a naturalistic treatment reduces 
the impression of space instead of enlarging 
In the approach to this English country house the entrance drive as it 
skirts the lawn in front of the forecourt is flanked by a popular British 
device—the post and chain fence; an arrangement at once serviceable 
and attractive, and one that might be nicely adapted to small suburban 
places. Used as garden enclosures they should be about 6' high. In 
either situation they may be softened by climbing roses or bittersweet 
