them on the side of the professor. They are, as a rule, possessed of taste in a more marked degree than are men, and it is only when they become entêtées of a particular object or effect that their usual powers of discrimination fail them, and they cease to be valuable allies of the landscape gardener. Yield in trifles, but in important cases present a firm but respectful opposition at the proper time, and at no other. No doubt cases arise where forbearance ceases to be a virtue;' and it certainly is startling to find, on a second visit to a place, that your cards, wherewith you had marked certain trees for the axe, have been transferred to other and quite different ones.

ENTRANCE ROAD.

The entrance road with its wing walls, in most cases the first unmistakeable indication of proprietorship which strikes the visitor, demands much care in its treatment. The writer will endeavour to point out a few of the errors which should be especially avoided.

FIG. 14.

For entrance sweeps of a plain character, the subjoined sketch shows a method of coping which the

writer has seen practised with very good effect. It is a rude sort of crenellation, by no means lacking picturesqueness in execution, though not very effective as a sketch.

The two annexed cuts, figs. 15 and 16, show two

FIG. 15.

nearly similar methods of treating an entrance sweep wall. In the former the curves are simple quadrants in the Roman manner, which can never give grace in combination, as may be seen in the cyma recta or cymatium of any Roman example. The Greeks, on

FIG. 16.

the contrary, used invariably curves drawn by hand, of such extreme delicacy that they cannot be imitated by any mathematical formula of projection. The Italian form of cymatium, which is of extreme grace, is also drawn by hand.

Fig. 16 shows the sweep treated in the Italian method,

drawn, for convenience, by two portions of circles of unequal radius. The curve is easy, and what is termed 'flowing.'

Some professors prefer a hollow curve for the entrance sweep, but it seems more natural that the walls or fence should conform to the track which either wheeled vehicles or pedestrians would take on turning from the highway into private grounds. Besides, anything that tends to increase the quantity of gravel which requires weeding is an objection. If on a very large scale, the portions of the road over which the traffic never passes might be turfed, and indeed planted, enclosed by a fence or posts and chain; but it may be questioned whether there is strict propriety in supplementing the sweep wall, which is the real fence, by another outside it. This difficulty is greatly lessened if the entrance recess is angular, as there will then be at least a fair place to start the supplementary fence from-namely, a corner pier.

The first thing required of an approach road is that it should be easy and reasonably direct. People who are hurrying to catch a train or fetch a doctor have little leisure to admire the road for anything but its suitability for purposes of locomotion. The curves should be fair and continuous, easy to be kept by the horses, and screening the house. The following example shows a very short approach; but, short as it is, it admits of being done badly.

In fig. 17 the curve is continuous, and the house is

screened. In fig. 18 the wheels would certainly follow the straighter course shown by the straight lines, and

TURNPIKE

FIG. 17.

FIG. 18.

the recesses or bays A A would grow up in weeds, or require constant care; the projections would be shaved by the carriages, and continually encroached upon. Fig. 18 is, however, by no means as bad as evil ingenuity could make it; but it is wrong in principle, and no landscape gardener would lay it out so.

A practice which should decidedly never be allowed is for two bays or two projections on the same side to be seen at once; it is the worst possible fault a road can have. Use curves, as many as may be desired, but no serpent-like twistings. The following figures will explain more clearly.

In fig. 19 we have an easy curve; and, by looking at

the dotted lines, it will be seen that the view is confined to one bay and one projection. In fig. 20, on the

contrary, two indentations and two projections are visible, the effect of which would be very bad. A horse would draw a carriage so as to shave the projections and avoid the indentations, and the track of the wheels would soon show the faults of the design.

Most landscape gardeners insist that the road should be carried on the natural surface of the land. Unless, however, the ground be very easy in its slopes, there seems no valid objection to a moderate amount of cutting and filling. The main thing to avoid is the formality of a railroad; but as a road is manifestly an artificial work, why should it not be as perfect as skill can make it? The first object of a road is to carry wheeled vehicles, and anything in reason which facilitates this object would seem to be allowable.

The difficulty of making a satisfactory cutting is greatest in comparatively level ground which happens to be repeatedly crossed by hillocks, recalling in miniature to the traveller the rolling prairie of the West.