_!BKAR\ tJL.1 w F\ u. - THE ART AND CRAFT OF GARDEN MAKING. WORKS BY THE SAME AUTHOR. "CIVIC ART: STUDIES IN TOWN PLANNING, PARKS, BOULEVARDS, AND OPEN SPACES," BATSFORD. " DUNFERMLINE," AN ILLUSTRATED REPORT PREPARED FOR THE DUNFERMLINE TRUST. "BOLTON," A STUDY IN TOWN PLANNING. FRONTISPIECE. GARDEN MAKNG HONORARY -A -lu-B- A- LECTURER. ^LANDSCAPE DESIGN of& UNIVERSITY. LIVERPOOL. on . '- - LONDON B T BAT5FORD 94- HFGH HOLBORN NEW YORK ; CHAS. SCRl&NERS SONS /v\ v Main Lib. Agric. Dept Dedicated by special permission To their Royal Highnesses Field- Marshal the Duke of Connaught and The Duchess of Connaught 280310 PREFACE. THE fact that my book " THE ART AND CRAFT OF GARDEN MAKING " has run through three editions in the short period since it first appeared, could not fail to be gratifying to me, and the very indulgent treatment which it has received, both from reviewers and the large circle of friends which my practice in this and other countries lias given me, themselves often deeply versed in many of the subjects dealt with, has been a continual source of pleasure. Their kindness could not, however, blind me to many faults which I was conscious still remained, even after the two partial revisions undertaken before issuing the second and third editions, and it was this consideration which determined me to re-write and very largely re-illustrate the book for a fourth edition. There was also another consideration which made drastic revision necessary. In the sphere of garden design, as in every other phase of modern life, the spirit of change has made itself felt. New needs have arisen and new practical requirements, the out- come of changing conditions, have to be met. As an instance of this, one has only to quote the coming of the motor-car, which has made it necessary entirely to re-write those portions which deal with drives, entrances, lodges and carriage courts. In the arrangement of the book, a two-fold object has been kept in view. Not only has every effort been made to deal with the subjects discussed in such a manner as to provide interesting consecutive reading to all who love a garden, but also to make each chapter, dealing with a special branch of garden making, complete in itself, thus giving to the work some of the uses of a book of reference. This latter require- ment lias necessitated some little repetition, which it is hoped the general reader will pardon. There is no part of the fascinating subject of garden design which has not a direct influence on every other part, and therefore, notwithstanding this confessed redundancy, it has been thought necessary to provide copious indices in order that each branch of the subject may be still further collated. So much for the re-arrangement of the literary matter. The re-illustrating has been undertaken from a different motive. In the first edition I was obliged to rely almost entirely on perspective drawings to help me to visualize the plans illustrated, for, though most of the schemes described were completed, so far as the actual work of formation was concerned, the hand of time was necessary to clothe the groundwork thus created with a softening and beautifying veil of greenery. In the present edition, however, after twenty-five years' practice, I am in a position to illustrate by photographs from my own work nearly all the points dealt with. While this almost exclusive use of examples culled from my own practice may be considered open to the objection that it narrows the outlook, it has the more than counterbalancing advantage that each point shows some problem met in actual practice, and successfully solved, a practical gain of the highest importance. viii. PREFACE. Nevertheless I should be the last to claim that any merit which the designs illus- trated may show is entirely my own. In almost every case throughout my practice, where a scheme prepared has gone further than the draughting board, I have owed much to the interest and advice, the outcome of an intelligent and discriminating enthu- siasm for the work, which have been shown by my Clients. It is only by this sympathetic collaboration that the best results can be obtained. I wish also freely to express my indebtedness to those of my Clients who have kindly permitted me to illustrate the work which I have done for them. I also desire to acknowledge the help rendered by my Sons, Messrs. E. Prentice and John W. Mawson, the former of whom executed most of the additional drawings prepared for this edition, and by many of my office staff, past and present, including Messrs. R. Atkinson, I). Cameron, N. and H. Dixon, J. Dyer, A. N. W. Hodgson, R. Mattocks, J. R. Mawson, H. Pierce, J. Shaw and J. B. Walker, each of whom has taken a keen and practical interest in the production of the work. The book also owes much to the illustrations by Messrs. E. A. Chadwick and E. A. Rowe, particularly the coloured plates. Lastly I wish to acknowledge the invaluable services rendered by my Secretary and former pupil, Mr. James Crossland, who arranged my MS. for the printer. Without this collective effort, this edition, produced, as it has been, in the intervals of an extensive and growing practice, would have been impossible. THOMAS H. MAWSON. High Street House, Lancaster. October, 1912. IX. List of Chapters. CHAPTER i. THE PRECEDENT OF GARDEN DESIGN. 2. THE PRACTICE OF GARDEN DESIGN, t $' 3. THE CHOICE OF A SITE AND ITS TREATMENT. 2. i 4. ENTRANCES AND CARRIAGE COURTS. 5. GATES AND FENCES FOR GARDEN AND PARK. 6. DRIVES, AVENUES AND SERVICE ROADS. ^ 7. TERRACES AND TERRACE GARDENS. 8. FLOWER GARDENS, BEDS AND BORDERS. 10' 9. LAWNS, GLADES AND GARDEN WALKS. \2- 10. VERANDAHS, SUMMER-HOUSES, PERGOLAS AND BRIDGES. | 11. STATUARY, TREILLAGE AND GARDEN FURNITURE. 12. THE DECORATIVE TREATMENT OF WATER, p 13. ROCK, WALL AND BOG GARDENS. 14. CONSERVATORIES, GREENHOUSES, VINERIES AND FRUIT HOUSES. 15. KITCHEN GARDENS AND ORCHARDS. 16. THE FORMAL ARRANGEMENT OF TREES. ^ i 17. PLANTING FOR LANDSCAPE EFFECT. 18. TREES AND SHRUBS FOR GARDEN AND PARK. ^\ 19. CLIMBERS FOR WALLS, PERGOLAS AND TRELLIS. ^ L 20. HARDY PERENNIALS FOR BEDS, BORDERS, ETC. EXAMPLES OF GARDEN DESIGN. GARDENS OF VARIOUS SIZES. Gardens to semi-detached houses. Garden to small detached residence. ^ ' Garden for a larger detached residence. Garden for a good-sized suburban residence, j 3 If A large town garden. ^ $ » Grounds to a new Country Seat. ^ V 5 Grounds to an ancestral domain. 3 f °j GARDENS OF EXCEPTIONAL KINDS. A Lake District garden. A Highland garden. i * ^ A garden on a flat site. 3 6~^ A garden in granite. J (> 3 A garden to a classic renaissance mansion. 3^^ A mountain home. ^ 7 A hillside garden. .? < An old Tudor garden, restored, remodelled and enlarged IT? x. FIG. I. — END OF THE GLADE, LEWISTON MANOR. CHAPTER I. Before considering the various features which go to the making of a modern garden, it will be necessary to take a rapid survey of the history of the art of Land- scape Architecture so far as it has any immediate bearing upon our subject, and provides a precedent on which to work. The existence of gardens may be taken as being coeval with the whole period of man's growth from utter barbarism to present-day civilization ; but, for our immediate purpose, it is sufficient to deal with the development of the art in our own country. Those who are interested in the archaeological aspect of the subject will find it very fully dealt with in London's " Encyclopaedia of Gardening." The evolutionary lines along which advance is made in every art demand that a thorough knowledge of precedent shall form a prominent part of the training of the expert, and although it has been said with truth that landscape architecture suffers, in comparison with other arts, from the paucity of its precedent, this merely means that the planning of the modern garden is a young art capable of much development, and does not excuse a lack of knowledge of all that has been done by masters of the craft in this country during . the last four centuries. With Roman and Norman gardens it is not necessary to deal, further than to say that they probably formed the basis of many medieval monastic pleasaunces. Up to the close of the Tudor period, when the renaissance in all forms of art had taken such a firm hold upon Europe, garden design, except in connection with Royal Palaces, like so many other branches of knowledge, was almost entirely in monastic hands, and most of the existing records of the achievements of the monks are contained in the illustrations with which they embellished their illuminated manuscripts, and incidental references to the beauties of their parterres and pleached alleys in the metrical romances of the period. From the time of Henry II., however, the citizens of London had gardens to their villas, while later, in the reign of Henry V., the gardens at Windsor Castle, which he knew well from his imprisonment there, were thus described by King James I. of Scotland in " The Quair " :— 1 Now was there maide fast by the touris wall A garden faire, and in the corneris set Ane herbere grene, with wandis long and small Railit about, and so with treeis set Was all the place and hawthorn hedges knet, That lyfe was non, walkyng there for bye That myght within scarce any wight espye. So thick the bewis and the leves grene Beschudit all the alleyes that there were, And myddis every herebere might be sene The scharp grene swete jenepere, Growing so fair with branches here and there, That as it semyt to a lyfe without, The bewis spred the herbere all about." Knowledge of precedent necessary. Roman and Norman Gardens. THE PRECEDENT OF GARDEN DESIGN. Monastic Although formality was the rule within the medieval pleasure grounds, natural foliage Gardening. effects were interspersed with the hedges, " beshaded " alley walks, topiary borders, fountains, flower beds planted in intricate patterns, arbours and flower-covered trellis which formed the greater part of the gardens. The charm of the English garden has ever been its adaptability to the rural and pastoral scenery among which it is placed, and in this respect the monastic builders and designers excelled. They first chose a site of natural beauty, as may be seen in the ruins of Bolton, Fountains, Tintern or Furness, and then built their abbeys with an instinctive feeling for harmony, making them blend into their surroundings of river, woodland or fertile pasture in a manner which has never been surpassed. They possessed the well-nigh unique power of adapting the geometric formalities of Gothic architecture to natural scenery, and so, in the for- mation of their gardens, the natural and the artificial were placed side by side, neither clashing with the other, but each gaining added beauty from the contrast. The souls of such men could never be cramped within the pleasing neatnesses of the garden, they moved in larger prospects, their admiration and wonder were called forth by the beauties of Nature, the magnanimity of the Creator moved them to higher thoughts and aspirations. They possessed a broad grasp of Nature's excellences, the spirit of which infused alike their missals, their architecture and their gardens with that sense of a mystical environment which the least responsive to sympathetic sur- roundings must feel to some extent at least in an old-world pleasaunce. Renaissance As before stated, a new period of garden design commenced during the Tudor period. Up Gardens. to the commencement of the reign of Henry VIII., gardening, in common with all peaceful arts, had suffered a serious check in the disturbed state of the country during the Wars of the Roses, but the advent of more peaceful times, together with the advance in learning and travel, inevitably resulted in the importation of foreign styles of design, notably the Italian, French and Dutch, thus infusing fresh life into the art. There is, however, such a pronounced individual character about our national land- scape that it resists the heroic stateliness of the Italian manner with its too lavish details and the undue artificiality of the French renaissance, of which Versailles is perhaps the most typical example, as well as the curious conceits of the Dutch styles. All these suit their own countries well enough but are not at home in England ; they, however, held the field in succession from the decadence of the monastic influence until the time when the style which is known as typical English gained the ascendency. The Italian style was probably first attempted in this country by Henry VIII. at Nonsuch, and Wolsey at Hampton Court, though the gardens at the latter place, as they now appear, were not completed until the reign of William III. The existing maze is however Wolsey 's work. All the garden books of the sixteenth century abound in descriptions of Italian features in white marble and Lydian stone copied from the designs of Italian Landscape Architects of the period ; yet there is evidence in the writings of Doctor Andrew Borde and Thomas Hill that there were souls who yearned for emancipation from the foreign yoke and its artificialities, and to breathe their native air in an environment and amidst features which accord with its quiet type of beauty. These two writers paved the way for Gervase Markham and William Lawson in the next century, both of whom wrote from practical experience. Their works abound in evidences of their innate love of Nature and of their delight in sights and sounds gratifying to the senses, as the following quotation from the writings of the latter will show :— " What more delightsome than an infinite varietie of sweet-smelling flowers ? decking . with sundry colours the greene mantle of the Earth, the universall Mother of us all, so by them bespotted, so dyed, that all the world cannot sample them, and wherein THE PRECEDENT OF GARDEN DESIGN. is it more fit to admire the Dyer, than imitate his workemanship. Colouring not onely the earth, but decking the ay re, and sweetning every breath and spirit." It is in these men and such as they, that the English school of garden design finds its parentage. They wrote for the people of average means rather than for the very wealthy, and they advocated a restrained and ordered formality in the least ambitious gardens. They retained all that was pleasing of the medieval examples, the high en- closing wall, the clipped hedges, the knots and borders, advocating the inclusion of topiary and straight paths bounding and intersecting short courts of grass, with a foun- tain, a sundial or a pyramid at their junction. They knew how to frame the dainty jewel in its rustic green setting, trim and neat within and in harmony with its rural surroundings without, and even with the azure sky above. They resented the grandiose assumptions of the Italian and other imported styles and, in attempting to repair the vagaries of the landscapists who suc- ceeded them, it is to these same healthy traditions we must return. The Italian inspiration was fostered under the renaissance revival by Inigo Jones, who had studied the neo-classic style in Italy and had given special attention to the productions of Palladio, and who erected what is probably the first garden pavilion ever built in England, at Beckett near Farringdon. This revived interest in classic architecture had a salutary effect on the design of both houses and gardens in demanding in everything proportion and symmetry and, although widely popular up to the time of the supremacy of the Puritans and the disturbances of the civil war, when the gentler arts were for a time despised, nevertheless provides the highest standard for the education of public taste reached up to the close of the last century. The accession of Charles II. restored garden design to favour. It was he who invited to this country le Notre, whose creations at Versailles and other places were on the largest possible scale. Such gardens as he planned needed an enormous expanse of ground and were combined with avenues which extended for miles beyond the boun- daries of the garden proper. Le Notre taught the English gardeners expansive ideas, though, with exceptions like Badminton, there have naturally not been many oppor- tunities of carrying them out. The ordinary country gentleman of the time avoided sumptuous effects and remained staunch to the unpretentious delights which had pleased his ancestors. That le Notre could adapt himself to his environment, however, is evident from his work at St. James's and Greenwich Parks. With William and Mary was introduced the quaintness of the Dutch garden, which later ran riot in extravagant and ridiculous topiary. It was a degenerate art which destroyed the restful simplicity which had hitherto been such a marked characteristic of the national school of garden design. The introduction of these foreign styles had an unsettling effect on English gardening and, when the teased and tortured extrava- gances fell before the ridicule of Walpole, Pope, and Addison, a new fashion was evolved which usurped to itself the title of the " Natural Style," though, in spite of all that it professed, it was, in a different way, as much the subject of rules and as formal as anything which had gone before. As we see in the writings of Markham and Lawson, the formality of the old school was more honest and logical and more sincere in its genuine love of Nature. From this time up to the latter part of the nineteenth century, garden design, Decay of considered as a decorative art, could not be said to have made any decided advance, the Italian Even the wealth of material which had been evolved or introduced in the interval, School. and which should have enlarged the scope of the art, merely resulted in obscuring broad principles under a mass of small detail and in giving free rein to those lovers of the curious and exotic who, by converting the garden into a floral and arboricultural museum, destroyed its restfulness and placed it entirely out of sympathy with the THE PRECEDENT OF GARDEN DESIGN. surrounding rural scenery. If we study the principles upon which the medieval and renaissance gardeners worked, and contrast them with the practice of the garden designers of the last century, we find that the former subordinated every detail to principle, whereas the latter considered sundry points of detail to the exclusion of any regard for the scheme as a whole and of the relation the parts should bear to it. The men of the old school were idealists and expressed their ideas in a straight- forward, common-sense manner, basing everything on a balanced plan and using ornament to emphasize it. They laid out a garden in so many plots, with hedges or trellis round each, or a tree was planted at each corner to give point and expression to the shape. We have to thank these old designers for many stately avenues, grand parterres, quiet alleys, shady walks, sparkling fountains, quaint hedges, architectural ponds and broad lawns, wedded together in such a masterly way as to impress the spectator with the grandeur and transparent honesty of the whole scheme. Their restrained and harmonious details, so admirably adapted to the purpose they had to serve, marked these early designs as the work of men of the widest sympathy with garden craft. Here, in figures Nos. 2 and 3, are two examples of their work, the first shewing Haddon Hall, erected on a Derbyshire hillside and needing the support of masonry, thus giving an opportunity to its designer for a chaste and beautiful balustrade and a fine flight of steps. The other is of Levens Hall, suggesting a strong Dutch influence, a style more adapted to gardens laid out on a level site. Eighteenth ' Landscape Gardeners," as the garden designers of the late Georgean and Victorian Century periods called themselves, may, for want of a more correct expression, be called realists, Gardening. their theory being that the perfection of the art of garden making consisted in pedantic imitation of Nature. The founder of this school was " Capability Brown," a man who was, for a long time, regarded as a genius. As he lived at a period in which almost every branch of art and literature was in the throes of change, there is no wonder that he turned his back upon the old examples of garden design and espoused the promised novelty of what he and his followers conceived to be a new discovery, which was briefly that every bit of pastoral scenery was of itself a garden fair, which they fondly imagined could be reproduced wherever the designer willed. Brown and his admirers thought that the old pleasaunces possessed greater possibilities than the original designer had realised, so down came the terrace walls, the mattock was laid to the roots of the box and yew hedges, and the pleached alleys were demolished. Remon- strance or counsel was useless, the tide had set in, onward it ruthlessly swept, regardless of the labours of a past generation and recking little of the sanctifying hand of time. Nature, they proclaimed, must henceforth supplant idealization, and the crudest effects perpetrated in her name be placed on a higher pedestal than that ordered symmetry and balanced proportion which is the soul of all true design. The old school was doubtless decadent, and some corrective to the vagaries and appalling insipidities into which it had fallen was certainly required, but such a revolu- tionary change as that brought about by the garden designers of the eighteenth and the beginning of the last century is to be deplored. The ability of these men was measured by the amount of deception they were able to perpetrate, for their one claim to fame consisted in imitation and not in invention. With such ideas it is not surprising that sham castellated ruins and other absurdities came to be considered as necessary adjuncts to garden scenery. Ignorance and blind infatuation must altogether have possessed these innovators, or they would have seen that the old designers had learned many of the secrets of Nature which they seldom caught. It is refreshing to find that, among all this turmoil of propaganda of new ideas,— this wanton destruction of beautiful work for the sake of an upstart fashion, — there were men who still clung to the old principles and who dared to risk adverse criticism by w O 8 W O p h4 O W W Q O W O •55 o a o O § H t-H Q X~ a D t/3 CA1 C/3 O 'V o a o C5 IffflE CHOICE j REATMENT Choice of a locality. CHAPTER III. In dealing with the subject of this chapter, the choice of a site for a new domain and the endeavour to develop it on the best possible lines both artistically and practi- cally, the writer ventures to think that we cannot do better than follow the prospective owner of a typical country residence through the whole process of choice and develop- ment, culling such lessons for future application as may be of general use. The choice of a locality in which to build is naturally the first consideration, though in most instances there are factors connected with the business and health of the owner which will considerably narrow the question, and in any case it would be quite beyond the scope of this work to do more than to touch upon the climatic and hygienic advantages and disadvantages of the different portions of our Island. There are great differences in climate and atmosphere in various parts of Britain and even of the sea-board. The West coast, swept by the Atlantic breezes, tempered by the moist, warm air of the Gulf Stream, is more genial, if less bracing, than the East Coast, which is swept by the dry winds that cross the German Ocean, and from the same cause, the rainfall is much greater in the West than in the East. This is, however, to some extent compensated for by the mountainous surface and impervious subsoil on the West coast, which causes the water to flow away quickly from the higher portions of the land. The broken outline of the North-western coast again speaks eloquently of the violence of the stern " nor'- westers," though the resulting rugged picturesqueness may be sufficient recompense in the minds of some persons. The South coast, if we except the stormy extremities of Kent and Cornwall, provides throughout a genial and equable Winter resort, though undoubtedly somewhat relaxing in the Summer. Other factors, however, modify or even reverse these primary climatic and atmo- spheric distinctions. Thus the lie of the land, its general contours, its altitude with reference to its surroundings, the dispositions of surrounding hills or mountains, the proximity and placing of woods and forests, the presence of a large lake all have a very marked influence. It cannot be too clearly pointed out that mere altitude, reckoned, say, above the sea level, Altitude. is of no value whatever. What is important is the height in comparison with its surround- ings. For instance, a site which is five hundred feet above sea level, but in the bottom of a mountain valley where the sun rarely penetrates, may be depressing, while another on the sea coast, which is only twenty feet above high-water mark, may be bracing in the extreme. The same factors regulate the frequency of or immunity from fog. Mists always tend to hang in a valley, even though a thousand feet above sea level, which can easily be seen by visiting a hilly district in foggy weather and climbing the highest hill, when the top will often be found to be bathed in sunshine and the fog to lie at the THE CHOICE OF A SITE AND ITS TREATMENT. Subsoil. Business and social require- ments. beholder's feet like an inland sea, the tops of neighbouring hills peering above it like so many islands. On the other hand, to choose a site at an exceptional altitude on a mountain side might result in its being submerged in low-lying cloud almost every morning and evening. The site which will be found to be freest from such visitations is one on a Southern slope which forms no part of a natural basin. Another important factor which should be considered by those persons fortunate enough to be able to choose a site over a large area, is the nature of the subsoil. One that is pervious, such as those composed of gravel, sand or marl, is healthier than one which tends to become waterlogged in wet weather or is composed of stiff retentive clay. The porous soil, however, may become a source of danger through the facility with which poisonous matter from stables, cesspools or defective drains, can percolate through it and contaminate the water supply, or give off noxious gases into living rooms, unless this is guarded against. It has been maintained that a loamy clay subsoil is preferable to a sandy or gravelly one, as the former is a slower conductor of heat, thereby maintaining a more even temperature ; but this is not so, for every sudden change of temperature will be followed by dampness in the stratum of air next to the ground. It is also said that, in fully inhabited districts where efficient drainage is enforced, no inconvenience need arise from building on clay if the foundations are overspread with concrete and the walls damp- proofed. While it is true that the dangers of a water-retaining soil may be very much reduced and even almost negatived by such means, it still remains that " prevention is better than cure " and that, where possible, health and comfort will be always best served by the choice of an elevated site on a porous subsoil, which is known to lessen the tendency to diseases such as tuberculosis, asthma, rheumatism, ague and kindred ills fostered by dampness. This class of site has also distinct advantages when we come to make the garden. Not only is a light soil cheaper and easier to move in levelling the terraces and lawns, but, although much can be done to improve a very heavy soil, apart from the rose garden, one which is fairly light is preferable, especially for lawns. The paths, too, on clay land are apt to be greasy and disagreeable in wet weather, and the soil of the beds either very sticky or baked like a brick. The elevated site too has its advantages from the gardener's point of view, not only because it will be more sunny, but because, being naturally drier, plants will not be so easily affected by frost, which always attacks newly planted shrubs in the bottom of a valley long before those higher up are affected, and, incredible though it may appear, many varieties of trees, shrubs and plants luxuriate in an elevated position which would not grow on lower ground. There remain the questions of water supply and sewage disposal, the former being a matter which, strange to say, the author has more than once found to have been totally neglected until the site has been purchased and even built upon. Having settled these absolutely essential hygienic requirements, there are many other questions arising out of the prospective owner's business or social relations, his personal preferences and those individual idiosyncrasies which, while they are quite unexplainable on medical grounds, make surroundings which are healthy for most persons quite unsuitable to the person subject to them. With regard to our prospective owner's business relations, we shall be stating the case of a very large number of builders of new residences if we imagine him compelled to build within easy reach of his place of business but wishing to obtain a site where his growing family will obtain all the advantages of rural surroundings and healthy country air, and large enough to allow him to indulge a bent for gardening, arbori- culture, model farming, or other rural pursuits, such as can be dealt with within the 24 THE CHOICE OF A SITE AND ITS TREATMENT. limits of a few acres of land. He will also desire to be within reasonably easy reach of a fairly efficient shopping centre such as that provided by a county or market town. This question of accessibility has been greatly altered by the advent of the motor Accessi- car. Whereas, formerly, a mile or a mile and a half was about the limit which the bility. business man was prepared to go morning and evening in all weathers to and from the station, nowadays there are hundreds of instances where the same men travel from five to ten miles, and that with as little trouble. This, coupled with the steady and continu- ous improvement which is going on in the train services for business men, has opened up a very extended radius for choice of residence and has saved many an old Elizabethan farm or manor house or obsolete coaching inn from destruction and decay. In other cases, the proximity of one of the large hunts, a yachting centre, a re- nowned golf course or other facilities for country sports, may take the place of business requirements. Personal preferences will differ very much and are often a little bewildering to the Personal architect. It is quite exceptional for two persons to have the same ideas as to the value Preferences. of a site, the conditions which appear desirable to one being often wholly objectionable to another. One person prefers to look on his neighbour's house, and feels more sociable thereby, while another prefers to be so entirely isolated that even his estate cottages must be placed out of sight and sound. Most people are, however, agreed on the desirability of pure air and a sunny situation, the best from the latter point of view being one which slopes towards a point a little East of South, while the worst is that which slopes towards the North-west, and in nearly every instance extensive or beautiful views are courted, and the presence of well-grown timber or hedge rows with young timber trees is considered desirable. A house built on a treeless field, especially on an elevated site, appears unsociable, whereas a few well established trees serve, in a way, to link the present with the past and help the new architecture to blend with the landscape. When all the factors discussed, hygienic, commercial, social, artistic, geographical, and personal, have been applied to those sites of about the area required which are available, it will generally be found that the choice is very narrow indeed, and probably the question will largely decide itself by the pre-eminent suitability of one particular plot, though, even when the best has been done, the result will partake of the nature of a compromise, and many difficult problems will be left for consideration as the work of development proceeds. We may imagine, then, that our prospective owner has now made up his mind. To A typical carry the subject further and show how the site which he has chosen should be treated, s^e. we have taken from the ordnance map the parcel of ground shown in illustration No. 10. In extent, shape and contours, it is suitable for a moderate-sized residence, and very typical of the class of site we have been discussing but at the same time distinctive enough in its general characteristics to prevent its being treated in any stereotyped manner. The site, nine acres in extent, is such as might be found in most hilly dis- tricts, especially in Westmorland, the county in which it is situated. It has been slightly altered to conceal its actual identity, but the alterations are not such as in any way to affect its use for the present purpose. A farmstead with numerous outbuildings formerly occupied a level site indicated on ns aspect the plan in the largest of the six fields which, with the two plantations of well-grown timber in good condition and the two coppices to the South and East, make up the nine acres. All are fenced with the rough stone walls characteristic of the district. The appearance of the plantations suggests that they may be the remains of a general clearing, the whole nine acres, with the exception of a portion of the lower field, being formerly covered with timber or coppice wood. The general fall of the land is to the South- east and a tumbling stream enters the ground near the North-west corner and passes to THE CHOICE OF A SITE AND ITS TREATMENT. nn taix- H Iff Km B rant iinkfl Pack -Road FIG. II. — PLAN SHOWING MANSION AND ADMINISTRATIVE BUILDINGS GROUPED FOR COMPOSITE EFFECT. Lower Portion, Shewing Yew * Walk and Lake ^43 FIG. 12. — SECTION THROUGH GROUNDS TO A COUNTRY HOUSE. 28 THE CHOICE OF A SITE AND ITS TREATMENT. placing the house on the site, for while the landscape architect will wish to compose the whole subject with the dominating feature, this is useless without the aid of the domestic architect in the placing and arrangement of the chief entrance door and the windows to the leading rooms. If the house is to be complementary to its setting, its arrangements must, in a great measure, be ruled by the design of the latter, and its architectural details be conceived in the same spirit. There is room for hearty co-operation also in the disposition of the service buildings, for while the domestic architect designs the culinary offices, the landscape architect places and arranges the kitchen garden, and efficiency demands that they shall be reciprocally planned; and the same principle applies to every other feature. Considered from the landscape architect's standpoint, the chief essential of the plan- ning of the house and its dependent buildings is that they shall be grouped so as to provide the most economical and practical arrangement which will cause the smallest amount of unremunerative labour and running to and fro. The logical deduction from this statement is that the whole — mansion, stables, lodges, laundry, garage, and outbuildings —should be designed as parts of one block, and that this can be done without disfiguring the mansion or destroying its privacy will be seen from illustration No. n, which shows the plan of the house and administrative annex as designed to suit the particular plot of ground we have been discussing. In recent years, there has been a tendency to detach the stables and laundry and Centraliza- as many other buildings as possible from the main block, the stables being in one tion in place, the laundry in another, the kitchen garden in another, and the workmen's cottages planning. away from the place altogether, with consequent waste of time as well as lack of composite architectural effect. Doubtless this state of things has, in the past, had its raison d'etre in hygienic considerations, but the high position to which sanitary science has now attained removes all objections not of an entirely sentimental nature. Having thus disposed the principal buildings on the ground in collaboration with The the domestic architect, we may now proceed to arrange the surroundings; but before question of doing so it is necessary that we should study the question of upkeep. Owners of new upkeep. places very properly give careful consideration to the question of the cost of the form- ation of their gardens, but how few give any thought at the time to the still more important question of annual maintenance. We will suppose, therefore, that the owner of the plot we have under consideration desires to limit the amount devoted to the annual upkeep of the grounds to £350 : o : o. In such a case we must so arrange our plan as to limit the expenditure as follows : — Head Gardener 30/- per week with cottage Per annum Second gardener 22/- do. do. do. Two garden labourers i8/- do. do. Strong youth io/- Seedsman's account for seeds, bulbs and sundries Nurseryman's account for fruit-trees, shrubs for making up, etc. Coke and coal for heating, peat, loam, silver sand, etc. Sundry expenses Balance £350 oo* * Nothing is allowed in this statement for interest on money sunk in lodges and cottages inhabited by gardeners, as the exact proportion of this to be credited would be difficult to apportion and would vary in each case. £ s. d. . 78 o o 57 4 o 93 12 o 26 O o 22 O 0 i8 0 o 35 0 0 16 IO o 3 14 0 29 THE CHOICE OF A SITE AND ITS TREATMENT. FIG. II. — PLAN SHOWING MANSION AND ADMINISTRATIVE BUILDINGS GROUPED FOR COMPOSITE EFFECT. Lower Portion, Shewing Yew=VaIK and Lake FIG. 12. — SECTION THROUGH GROUNDS TO A COUNTRY HOUSE. 28 THE CHOICE OF A SITE AND ITS TREATMENT. placing the house on the site, for while the landscape architect will wish to compose the whole subject with the dominating feature, this is useless without the aid of the domestic architect in the placing and arrangement of the chief entrance door and the windows to the leading rooms. If the house is to be complementary to its setting, its arrangements must, in a great measure, be ruled by the design of the latter, and its architectural details be conceived in the same spirit. There is room for hearty co-operation also in the disposition of the service buildings, for while the domestic architect designs the culinary offices, the landscape architect places and arranges the kitchen garden, and efficiency demands that they shall be reciprocally planned; and the same principle applies to every other feature. Considered from the landscape architect's standpoint, the chief essential of the plan- ning of the house and its dependent buildings is that they shall be grouped so as to provide the most economical and practical arrangement which will cause the smallest amount of unremunerative labour and running to and fro. The logical deduction from this statement is that the whole — mansion, stables, lodges, laundry, garage, and outbuildings —should be designed as parts of one block, and that this can be done without disfiguring the mansion or destroying its privacy will be seen from illustration No. u, which shows the plan of the house and administrative annex as designed to suit the particular plot of ground we have been discussing. In recent years, there has been a tendency to detach the stables and laundry and Centraliza- as many other buildings as possible from the main block, the stables being in one tion in place, the laundry in another, the kitchen garden in another, and the workmen's cottages planning. away from the place altogether, with consequent waste of time as well as lack of composite architectural effect. Doubtless this state of things has, in the past, had its raison d'etre in hygienic considerations, but the high position to which sanitary science has now attained removes all objections not of an entirely sentimental nature. Having thus disposed the principal buildings on the ground in collaboration with The the domestic architect, we may now proceed to arrange the surroundings; but before question of doing so it is necessary that we should study the question of upkeep. Owners of new upkeep. places very properly give careful consideration to the question of the cost of the form- ation of their gardens, but how few give any thought at the time to the still more important question of annual maintenance. We will suppose, therefore, that the owner of the plot we have under consideration desires to limit the amount devoted to the annual upkeep of the grounds to £350 : o : o. In such a case we must so arrange our plan as to limit the expenditure as follows : — £ s. d. Per annum 78 o o •• 57 4 o . . 93 12 o . . 26 o o 22 O O . . 1800 • • 35 o o 16100 3 14 o £350 oo* * Nothing is allowed in this statement for interest on money sunk in lodges and cottages inhabited by gardeners, as the exact proportion of this to be credited would be difficult to apportion and would vary in each case. Head Gardener 3O/- per week with cottage Second gardener 22/- do. do. do. Two garden labourers i8/- do. do. Strong youth io/- Seedsman's account for seeds, bulbs and sundries Nurseryman's account for fruit-trees, shrubs for making up, etc. Coke and coal for heating, peat, loam, silver sand, etc. Sundry expenses Balance THE CHOICE OF A SITE AND ITS TREATMENT. Extent of grounds and proportion of their parts. The indi- viduality of the site to be preserved. Of course the items will vary somewhat in different years, but the total can be kept fairly constant by so laying out the grounds as to limit the amount of bedding out or other features which entail a great deal of extra work. An incoherently planned garden entails more work than one artistically designed. Broad level stretches of lawn, with a few quaint box-edged flower-beds filled with old-fashioned perennials, require much less expenditure of labour than undulating slopes of grass cut up by tortuous walks and shrubberies laid out in exaggerated curves. Other practical matters influencing the ultimate design must be considered at this point. The first is the scale and extent of the grounds and the relative proportion of the various parts. With regard to their scale and extent, after the question of cost, the size and importance of the mansion, together with the social status of the owner, will be determining factors, while the size of his establishment will decide the extent of the kitchen garden, orchards, laundry greens and other more utilitarian features ; and the ages and interests of the members of his family and the amount of entertaining he proposes to do will regulate the number of tennis or croquet lawns. These requirements, if altogether fulfilled, take second rank to the ideal desideratum that the garden should be a proper setting to the house, in which capacity it serves the double purpose of foreground to the landscape when viewed from the house, and at the same time provides a base or setting for the house when viewed from a distance. The garden is thus the link which connects house and landscape Unfortunately prospective builders usually approach the task of garden construction with preconceived ideas as to what is desirable, and proceed to make the site conform to their ideas, instead of moulding their design to fit the site, thus putting " the cart before the horse." The bane of modern garden design, as of much contemporary art, is its inappropriateness, objects which would grace certain surroundings being obtruded among others totally unsuitable ; but the true artist always gets his inspiration from Nature, in this case from the site. By all means have a general idea of your requirements before commencement, but, when you come to the site, then begins the problem which differs from all others, and is the delight of the true architect, who, grouping the necessary features conveniently and compactly, at the same time adorns them with an expressive shape and form which accord happily with the prevalent characteristics of the site and local traditions, using the ready-to-hand local materials wherever possible. The late J. D. Sedding speaks very emphatically on this point. He says : — " The gardener's first duty in laying out the grounds is to study the site and not only that part of it on which the house stands but the whole site, its aspect, character, soil, contours, sectional lines, trees, etc. Common sense, economy, Nature and art alike dictate this." ' There is an individual character to every plot of land as to every human face, and that man is unwise who, to suit preference for any given style of garden, or with a view of copying a design from another place, will ignore the characteristics of the site at his disposal To leave a house exposed upon the landscape unscreened and unterraced is not to treat the site or house fairly." Another point we should bear in mind before setting to work to develop the site is that a garden should impress the spectator as being a place for flowers rather than shrubs, and should always have a cared-for appearance. The arrangement, also, should rather suggest a series of outdoor apartments than a panorama which can be grasped in one view. Art is well directed in arousing curiosity, " always inviting further exploration, to be rewarded with new but never final discovery." A garden ought also to proclaim itself as having been made for the accommodation and enjoyment of Nature's bountiful supplies. The first features to receive the attention of the designer will be the entrance drive THE CHOICE OF A SITE AND ITS TREATMENT. and service road. For the details of this work the reader is referred to a subsequent chapter. It is sufficient here to point out that, as already arranged, the house is placed near the old farmstead on a natural plateau about two hundred yards long from East to West and eighty yards broad, and, as the railway station is about three miles distant to the North-west, the most convenient position for the entrance will be as shewn on the plan (No 10). This demands that the service road and the kitchen garden, laundry green and offices should be to the North-east of the main block. Had the main bulk of the traffic approached from the opposite direction, and the entrance there- fore been placed near the North-east corner, the conditions would have been more ideal. The kitchen garden, which is in direct communication with the service block, is, with the surrounding borders, an acre in extent. It is surrounded by walls, that on the North-east side being ten feet six inches high, built of the local stone with a pro- jecting coping and with weather boarding as described in the chapter on kitchen gardens. It has also wires strained horizontally on its South-west face twelve inches apart for the training of fruit trees. The wall dividing the kitchen garden from the pleasure grounds is furnished with pilasters twenty feet apart to impart character to it, and, for a short distance from the garden house at the Southernmost corner, wrought iron panels are inserted in the wall to allow extended views in this direction. At this corner of the kitchen garden the ground is raised on the outside so that there is space under the garden house for a store for tools, etc., with an opening into the kitchen garden. The garden house and the wrought iron bays in the wall are clearly indicated at the right- hand end of the lower portion of the section (111. No. 12). In order that the kitchen garden may be used for promenading, as suggested in a subsequent chapter, a long walk is formed communicating with the pleasure grounds and forming, at its Western end, a part of the upper terrace. Having thus disposed of the more utilitarian portion of the grounds, the pleasure gardens must now claim our attention. Here greater regard must be paid to the ex- isting natural features than on a site devoid of natural beauty and, in order to preserve the coppice woods, the formal gardens are somewhat smaller than would otherwise have been the case. Apparent extent is, however obtained by means of the very strongly marked axial line at right angles to the South front of the house, which is continued across the lake by the garden temple on the opposite bank, as may be seen from the plan (No. 10), and which has necessitated the drawing of the sections (No. 12). Working outwards from the front of the house along this section line, we must dis- pose the levels of the made ground in accordance with the fall of the land considered in conjunction with the height of the house and the breadth of frontage, being careful at the same time to allow for an equal amount of cutting and filling so as just to use up all the material excavated, and to arrange so that very sudden changes in level with consequent engineering feats in the way of strong retaining walls are avoided. The principal terrace is approached from the house either from the conservatory or loggia at the South-west corner or the garden entrance from the drawing room, which opens into the covered way leading to the glasshouses in the kitchen garden (No. n). It can also be reached from the carriage drive through a wrought iron gate in an arched opening in the wall which divides this terrace from the drive. Its width is forty feet, which is made up as follows. The border next to the house is seven feet wide, then comes seven feet six inches of grass which divides it from the walk ten feet across, and beyond this there is fourteen feet of grass between the walk and the wall, the thickness of which makes up the forty feet. It is proposed that the upper terrace shall be supported by a handsome balustraded wall, and a broad flight of steps in the centre of this leads down to the lower terrace Entrance drive. The kitchen garden. Main axis of pleasure grounds. The principal terrace. 31 THE CHOICE OF A SITE AND ITS TREATMENT. on the South-east side of the house, while another flight leads to the tennis lawn on the South-west. The latter lawn, with its surrounding flower borders, forms a third terrace constructed to a level somewhere between those of the other two, and, owing to the nature of the contours, it is only possible to make it large enough for one court. Others could, if necessary, be provided on the open ground to the North-east of the house. The lower The lower terrace is arranged with a view to breadth of effect. It is intended that terrace. effective use shall be made on this terrace of free-flowering perennials and roses to give brightness and colour, but they will be concentrated to prevent a spotty effect and also to emphasize the central axial line of the composition, leaving the rest of the terrace free for broad, unbroken ex- panses of lawn. Following the safe prin- ciple already enunciated, that the further we' proceed from the house the freer should be the treatment of the details of the garden scheme, the retaining wall of the lower terrace, instead of being finely wrought and balustraded like that between it and the higher terrace, is simpler in design and treat- ment, being built in the local random-coursed ragstone with a plain coping, but, to prevent baldness, buttresses are placed at intervals with pier caps and finials over them, thus breaking the straight line and helping the perspective. Further still from the house the formal arrangement is continued by the walk down to the lake, which, instead of walls, is enclosed by the clipped holly hedges FIG. 13. shown on the upper portion of the section No. 12, thus ensuring a still freer treatment, for however truly the greenery is clipped, it can never have as hard a line as a wall would. The Lake. To dam up the stream so as to restore the lake to its original levels is an obvious necessity, and to prevent any hard break between the formal and the natural in the arrangement where the path from the house meets it, a bridge is suggested connecting with a garden temple on the opposite bank. LAY-OUT- OF- GARDENS MAE SKLDDCB -NEWPORT & G--BREWER -WILLIAMS-BO THE CHOICE OF A SITE AND ITS TREATMENT. There remain only two other prominent features for consideration, the stream and the The paddock. The former is left much in its natural state with the exception of the insertion Paddock. of a little rockwork such as that shown in illustration No. 261, and the enlargement of some of the pools to accommodate aquatic plants. The paddock is placed to the South- east of the house with convenient access to the public road and is brought into the garden scheme by the arrangement of the plantations both within it and near its boundary. Of the planting it is not necessary to speak at length as the whole subject is dealt with in a subsequent chapter. The chief points are to ensure shelter at one or two points and to frame and enhance the existing views to the South. FIG. 14. We have thus glanced briefly over all the more prominent of the many problems which j-fo vaiue beset the prospective owner of a new domain in choosing his site and deciding the broad lines Of compact- on which it is to be developed. Details must be left to be dealt with, each in its own separate ness in chapter. It is of course impossible to illustrate every point in this complex undertaking from planning. one site, however typical that one may be. Thus, the value of compactness and agreement between the several indoor and outdoor departments of a country residence cannot be over- estimated. How far this principle may be carried is shown on the plan in Illustration No. 13, of a house and garden now in course of erection in South Wales. The site is a very elevated one, with a slope to the South-west, though on the Eastern side there is a partly level stretch extending to the highway. As the house has been developed from an old cottage and farm- 33 THE CHOICE OF A SITE AND ITS TREATMENT. stead it will be seen that the plan is almost ideal in its compactness and convenience for economical working. Exceptional In other cases, family, social or commercial interests may outweigh all other con- sites. siderations and lead to the adoption of a site which, though ideal for a picnic or excur- sion, does not possess those qualities usually sought for in a domain. Unpromising beginnings, however, often lead to the most interesting results as may be seen from the gardens shewn in Nos. 14 and 15. The first one is known as the Flagstaff, Colwyn Bay, and crowns an eminence which, up to recent years, was the best known point of interest in the neighbourhood, and so appealed strongly to the purchaser, Walter Whitehead, Esq. A GARDEN * BUCKNGHAMSHIRE: a LEVEL COPPICE PLANTATION rHOMAS M MAWSON S SON3 LANCASTER LONDON TORONTO t- NEW-YORK FIG. 15. The second of these gardens is a wooded and level area of seven acres in Buckingham- shire which already possessed a few fine oaks and has been planted all round with a wide belt of trees, of about thirty years' growth, giving on all sides a ragged sea-saw line and effectually cutting off any view of the open country. Though flat, the ground is well elevated, and, from a raised platform erected on the spot chosen for the house, it was possible to take a survey of the surrounding country, composed of well-timbered rolling downs almost entirely free from buildings. From this platform radial lines were drawn on the survey plan in the direction of the best views, and both house and garden planned in relation to these. This involved the felling of a number of young trees and the opening of glades which not only framed the distant views but let a flood of light into the grounds. To ensure that the best views shall be obtained from the entertaining rooms, the house is raised above the mean level and supported by a terrace wall, the tennis lawns being sunk to give it a still further appearance of elevation. 34 FIG. 16. — GATE PIERS AT VILLA CARLOTTA. CHAPTER IV. First impression gained from style of enhance. No parts of a scheme for a residential property call for such thoroughness or mature deliberation as entrances and carriage courts. Here at the entrance are obtained the first impressions of the domain, which, like all first impressions, either of a person or of any- thing else, are the ones which last. Existing examples present every gradation from the cheap modern over-pretentious arrangement, to the entrance which properly suggests the impersonal and dignified charm of a truly English home, under whose subtle spell you fall immediately you enter its precincts. This noble type of work, characterised by ample proportions, and yet by restraint and quiet dignity, is what all true designers seek to create, only to find that it is the most difficult to achieve. The same qualities of orderly restraint and quiet dignity are essentials of the forecourt, but here the opportunities are greater. A well-considered grouping of house, stables and outbuildings round a sufficiently large space will usually assure an aesthetic composition which needs only a pair of piers and a short enclosing wall to complete it. The design of an entrance, whether in the form of gate-houses, lodge-entrances or the more simple and homely arrangement which gives character to many a suburban residence, has a greater bearing on the aesthetic qualities of the residence than many persons suppose. It gives the first impression, and ought to provide the keynote to what follows. This keynote should above all things be truthful, and prepare the mind and eye for what is to follow. For instance, the classic proportions and detail shown in illustration No. 17 is a natural prelude to the beautiful residence in the Italian manner two hundred yards distant. And that shown in the heading to the next Chapter equally prepares one for one of those quaint yet stately Georgian houses of which one finds so many good examples near London. Of course where an entrance is placed far away from the house, then the local note which accords with the landscape ought to be more pronounced. This index to the architectural qualities of the property is capable of much greater development than the mere differentiations between the entrance to a ducal domain and that to a mountain lodge or shooting box. These mark the two extremes, and are not difficult to attain. Scale and refinement would most beseem the one, and rugged picturesqueness the other. What is much more difficult, but none the less important, is to interpret, in the lodges and entrance as a whole, those subtle distinctions not only of style and scale but also the finer qualities of perfect harmony with environment and the expression of the social or intellectual ideals for which the family may be noted. Just as it may be said that a place fits the family, so the entrance should fit the place. On large estates, old and semi-retired servants are often placed in these lodges, the Lodges. wife to attend to the gate, the man to keep the entrance clean and tidy. Under these conditions the lodges are usually very small, and often of one story only, the architectural Fitness and scale. 37 ENTRANCES AND CARRIAGE COURTS. FIG. 17. — ENTRANCE TO THE GROUNDS OF A RENAISSANCE MANSION. ,? V-'" FIG. l8. — A SIMPLE ONE-STORIED LODGE BUILT OF LOCAL MATERIALS. ENTRANCES AND CARRIAGE COURTS FIG ig. — SMALL ONE-STORIED LODGE. (THE LATE MR. DAN .GIBSON, ARCHITECT.) emphasis being gained by massive gate piers, beautiful wrought-iron gates, and fine wing walls. On the other hand, if the lodges are to be occupied by the gardener or other active servants, they might be treated as the architectural tour de force of the entrance, the gates, piers and wing walls being designed on simpler lines. Illustrations Nos. 18 and 19 show simple but convenient forms of small, one-storied lodges, each having a living room, scullery, two bedrooms, a porch and larder, with the usual conveniences, while gate-houses, as distinct from other forms of lodges, invariably need the close association of other buildings, and are usually placed very near the residence, either at one side Gate-houses. of the carriage court, as in illustration No. 22, and as in the well-known example at Borwick Hall, or on the side opposite the main entrance to the house as in No. 86. In the older examples these were seldom placed further away than in the well-known gatehouse at Charlecote, unless treated as the entrance to some lordly domain from the town or village, or, in very exposed positions, to give shelter to the grounds as in the case of those shown in illustrations Nos. 81 and 82. The twin lodges (111. No. 21), designed in connection with one of the principal entrances to Pittencreiff Park, Fifeshire, provide, in their general grouping and composition, a transition from the gate-house to the pair of lodges ; these were to stand some distance from the house, up to which there is a wide straight avenue. When a gate-house, with an arch enclosing a view over the park or gardens is adopted, such an arrangement as that shown in illustration No. 23, planned and erected for Earl Beauchamp at Madresfield, allows of very varied treatments. Single lodges usually require much more careful planning in relation to the site than double lodges, for in the latter case, provided the drive is at right angles to the public road, and continues for some distance in a straight line, the mere balance of parts secures a certain imposing effect. Single lodges are usually erected in positions where the drive takes an oblique or curving line from the road. Here the lodge must be placed, and the windows of the living room arranged so as to secure a long view of the road on one side and the drive on the other. This often leads to a certain picturesqueness of outline and composition and an originality of treatment which may give an individual charm to the entrance. This position of the lodge, in relation to the direc- tion from which carriages approach, and to the ease with which the gates can be opened by the attendant, is important. The arrangement aimed at is usually to obtain the longest view of the drive and of the public road, so that the attendant may have due warning of the arrival of vehicles. How this can be accomplished is seen in the accompanying plan (No. 20), the curved line representing the course the carriage would take in driving to the residence. As indicated by the radiating lines, the living room has a bay window A Placing of the lodge. FIG. 20. commanding the drive in both directions, and the entrance porch B is within seven yards of the centre of the gateway. If after passing the gates, the drive curved in the opposite direction, an additional window would be required at E. 39 ENTRANCES AND CARRIAGE COURTS. T)UNFERMLINE PARK //ENTRANCE-LODGES FIG. 21. FIG. 22. — THE CARRIAGE COURT " WOOD," DEVONSHIRE. ENTRANCES AND CARRIAGE COURTS. LODGES -AT MAESRCDDUD NEWPORT-MON Lodges placed a little distance back from the wing walls are the most pleasing, though the many considerations which influence their position make it difficult to lay down a general rule. The ground may rise so rapidly from the entrance, as in the case shown in illustration No. 24, as to give the lodge a stilted appearance if set back, or it may fall so rapidly as to compel their erection close up to the wing walls, when it is necessary to bring the lodge closer to the road. An example of double lodges demanding a very open treatment is shown in the heading to Chapter VI. These were erected as the entrance to Brook- landville, an old colonial classic residence some twenty miles West of Baltimore, U.S.A. Although the public road was wide enough, the macadamized part was very narrow, and therefore it was desirable to provide stretches of grass outside the gates, and give to the latter added importance by the provision of wrought-iron grilles. Illustration No. 23, shows two lodges designed by Mr. E. P. FIG. 23. Warren for a client in South Wales ; the ground floor of that on the right and the upper floor plan of that on the left being shown. The drive, as planned by the author, is for a considerable distance perfectly straight, and is planted as a broad avenue, which when fully grown should make a dignified approach to a fine modern mansion which occupies an elevated site. In No. 25 are illustrated a pair of workmen's cottages as lodges, placed at some distance from Dunchurch Lodge, Rugby, and at the junction of the drive with the Rugby road, and designed by Gilbert Frazer, Esq. Unfortunately, the photograph was taken before the climbers and sur- rounding plantation had been given time to add their pictur- esque and softening touches to the com- Double lodges. FIG. 24. position. There is another lodge of more distinctly architectural pretensions at entrance to the gardens. the 41 ENTRANCES AND CARRIAGE COURTS. FIG. 25. — ESTATE WORKMEN'S COTTAGES AT DUNCHURCH LODGE, RUGBY GILBERT FRAZER, ESQ., ARCHITECT. FIG. 26. LODGE AND GARAGE BY W. LEIPER, ESQ., F.S.A 42 ENTRANCES AND CARRIAGE COURTS. Owing to the happy combination of homely circumstances they present, both single and double gate lodges placed at the ends of long park drives often blend perfectly with their picturesque landscape surroundings, suggesting to the passer-by a scene of peaceful habitation. It is this delightful homeliness above every other quality that is to be sought in lodges when far removed from the mansion ; in these and similar positions rustic character need not be sacrificed to style. Given the right surroundings, this is much to be preferred to making the lodge appear as an offshoot from the mansion. Illustra- tion No. 18 gives a solution of this problem of an entrance so far removed from the mansion as to suggest a design which harmonizes with the district of which it forms a part, rather than the mansion to which it belongs. In choosing a position for a lodge, although a backing of foliage is desirable, do not place it amidst or too near trees, but allow ample space for sunshine and flowers. A common mistake is to omit the yard and provision for the ordinary household re- quirements, such as drying clothes, which can be arranged with privacy by enclosing a piece of ground within hedges or walls. All examples referred to so far are connected with more or less extensive domains. There is a tendency for them to become sub-divided to meet the growing demand for small compact country residences which the motor car has brought within the reach of so many persons who for business reasons have hitherto been compelled to reside near railway stations. Such properties are often small in extent, ranging from five to twenty acres, which must be so developed as to secure the delights and conveniences of larger estates. They must therefore be carefully and compactly planned, providing, in addition to a good garden for use and ornament, a small garage or stable, with chauffeur's apart- ments, coachman's or gardener's cottage. Here necessary compactness of plan often leads to a most effective grouping of garage, stables, lodge and entrance. The result is usually better than a series of scattered buildings, and indeed often adds a note of interest to the garden. Illustration No. 26 shows such an arrangement. Here the residence stands on an elevated site and is some one hundred yards distant. This picturesque and well-planned group was designed by Mr. Lei per, A.S.A., of Glasgow. The grouping of the necessary accessories to small country houses will undoubtedly be further developed, and out of this may grow a distinctive character and style ; but, as each site will need special consideration, no fear need be entertained of monotonous repetition. It has always appeared to the writer, that the suburban house, on a site of perhaps only two acres, requires greater care in its placing than any other ; such houses when built on the South side of the road, are invariably placed near the public highway, with little more than a carriage court or even only a covered way (111. No. 27) to separate them. Formerly the house was often a plain Georgian structure, with a beautifully designed portico entrance. This refined and scholarly phase of English domestic archi- tecture, whether near a town or in the country, calls for a corresponding solidity and richness in the entrance piers, wing walls, and gates. At Farfield House, near Bolton Abbey (111. No. 48), piers stand at either side of the entrance to the North Garden, which was probably at one time the carriage court. The wrought-iron gates, which from their position and proportions must have been very beautiful, have disappeared. The Carshalton gates and piers are better known, but both serve to show how much the architects of the later renaissance valued the entrances as points of emphasis, often restraining expenditure on the house that they might enrich them. The gate piers at Wood, a modern residence on Dartmoor, are of more modest Grouping of garage, stable, lodge and entrance. Houses near the highway. 43 ENTRANCES AND CARRIAGE COURTS. FIG. 28. — ENTRANCE TO A DOMAIN IN DEVONSHIRE. FIG. 29. — ENTRANCE TO CARRIAGE COURT, DUNCHURCH LODGE, NEAR RUGBY. 44 ENTRANCES AND CARRIAGE COURTS. GATC PFRS j ItZZO i (5 owl near c/afeKnam /flr : HALSEY , dimensions, and on that account perhaps better adapted to the majority of entrances (111. No. 28). They are *built of roughly squared granite, with simply detailed capitals to permit of the molds being cut by local workmen, the whole sur- mounted by lead urns. Other columns of similar height, but in brick, are shown in No. 34. Others in brick and tiles and octaganal on plan are shown in illustration No. 35. Where a homely quaintness is Gate piers sought after rather than archi- and local tectural expression, much may be material. done with the simplest local material, whether brick and tile, granite, limestone, millstone grit, or slate rock as in Westmorland and North Wales. Where there is neither rock nor brick of sufficiently good quality to stand the strain of gates, then any material which FIG. 30. comes handiest may be built up in cement and completed in cement rough-cast, with a flag or simply dressed cap, which may be surmounted by a ball, sugarloaf, or other suitable finial. An example in rough stone is given in No. 31, and of brick in Nos. 34 and 35. For the gates themselves, . ^J . Wrought wrought iron in some form . ir^BSJMl 3Ba3 'iron gates. or other, either plain or ornamental, is the best. No reference has been made to those fine achievements in the smith's art which are the fitting accompaniment of the palatial mansion, but a study of them is not only interesting but helpful to all who contemplate the erection of new entrance gates, even though they may necessarily be on a more modest scale. Considered from the practical point of view however, wrought iron lasts longest and needs little repair beyond an occasional coat of paint. Unfortunately no material lends itself so readily to the manipulation of the wholesale manufacturer who, by his machinery, supplants the craftsmanship of the worker. In no branch of applied art does FlG. 31. — A SIMPLE ENTRANCE IN GRANITE AND WROUGHT IRON. 45 Gates in wood and iron combined. Wooden gates. ENTRANCES AND CARRIAGE COURTS. the skill of hand and head of the worker count for more than in the forging and fashioning of iron, and for this reason a perfectly plain gate carefully constructed is better than an elaborate one turned out by machinery. As some proof that the clever craftsman is still with us I illustrate three recently constructed carriage gates. No. 28 shows the gates at " Wood." No. 29 the gates to the carriage court at Dunchurch Lodge, near Rugby, and Nos. 32 and 33 to the principal entrance, Little Onn Hall, Staffordshire. A combination of wood and iron has often been tried, sometimes with success. There seems no valid reason why this combination should not oftener have been resorted to, except on the ground of the difference between the lasting qualities of the two materials used. Here are two designs, Nos. 34 and 35 which combine both materials, the iron being treated constructionally to strengthen the woodwork and the gates as a whole. Teak is an excellent timber to use in conjunction with iron, and so is English oak, but pine, even when well painted, seems to decay quicker by contact with it. For most people an oak or painted gate must suffice. For detached villas and even larger FIG- 32.— ENLARGED DETAIL OF FIG. 33. houses, well-designed gates, partly panelled or arranged with open bars and strong substantial strap hinges and hung to squat, strongly-built stone or brick piers, such as those given in illustration No. 69, are both effective and inexpensive. Over-elaboration «, ? V ", FIG. 33. ENTRANCE GATES AT LITTLE ONN HALL, STAFFORDSHIRE. 46 ENTRANCES AND CARRIAGE COURTS. spoils, and at the same time adds unnecessarily to the cost. Simple, well-proportioned gates, of good construction, are invariably the most satisfactory, whilst the money thus saved would often pay for the erection of stone or brick hanging piers. Gates which are not constructed on the principle of the five-barred gate, i.e., with diagonal braces, are better in pairs. The usual setting-out widths for entrance gates, from that for a main entrance to an important property down to a single gate to a suburban villa and wing wall, are shown on illustration No. 36. FIG. 34. FIG. 35. In planning the wing walls every designer naturally has his own ideals as to what Wing walls. will suit any given position. Practice, and failures in practice, yield useful object lessons and settle points which, although they involve a few restrictions, repressing flamboyancy, yet eventually help towards right methods. As previously stated, the distance from the line of roadway to the entrance gate is dependent on many things. If the drive runs at right angles to the road, it is advisable to place the gates far back to allow a turn of large radius for carriages. If the public road be narrow in proportion to the amount of traffic upon it, it becomes all the more necessary to have some form of well-recessed wing walls. FIG 36. Broadly speaking, there are three forms of wing walls, viz., the bell and cup shapes, formed by convex and concave lines, and a combination of the two by O. G. lines. They are shown in the accompanying sketch (111. No. 37), and of these there are many variations and developments, such as splayed wing walls. For entrances placed at right angles to the road, the cup-shaped plan is generally most effective, as it allows a good outside green, which may be protected by posts and chain. The next best is the O. G. line ; but for drives entering at irregular angles the bell-shaped is preferable, the convex lines being 47 ENTRANCES AND CARRIAGE COURTS. Laying out more adaptable to an unsymmetrical plan and wing walls of unequal length. Where the entrance is at the end of a street, as in the accompanying sketch plan (111. No. 38), and the residence is of sufficient importance, the outer pillars are effective if in a line with the outside width of the street, the wing walls, being concave, describing a quarter of a circle ; or frequently a good effect may be obtained without placing back the line of the gate, by simply arranging the gate piers in a line with the boundary fences. The most difficult entrances to set out with satisfactory lines are those which are of irregular shape, i.e., with unequal wing walls. Nothing could be more deceptive to the uninitiated than the effect of curves. Somehow, even when they have had much careful planning, they lose that easy flow of line which on paper looks so pleasing, for there is all the difference between a flat scale drawing and the lines as laid down and viewed in perspective. When dealing with a long FIG. 37. Carriage courts. 'Jttje curved wing curved wing wall to an entrance as in illustration No. 20, a good method is to have walls. the ground roughly graded and a rope line laid down along the proposed curve. For this purpose, obtain an old cart rope, or any rope or long garden line, free from stiffening ; tie one end to a peg fixed at the point where the wing wall is to strike the pillar, and fix a second peg at the extremity of the curve ; having thrown out the line between these two points, walk from the first peg along the proposed line of fence with rope in hand, allowing it to pass lightly through the half-closed fingers, repeating the operation until the line is pleasing to the eye. Having fixed the curve, place ranging poles at regular distances along it, and imagine the inter-spaces brick or stone wall, when the result will generally be to make the line longer or flatter by carrying the first peg further along the road. Curved lines always appear more full and rounded when viewed in perspective. If some architectural character and dignity are desired, then from these actual lines make a survey, and thereupon design the elevations. The carriage entrance, if sufficiently important, should be provided with side gates for pedestrians on one or both sides ; these may be any width from three to five feet, and the parapet or sidewalks, where these exist, with proper kerb and channel terminating against the pillars. The opening for a carriage gateway is usually 12 feet, but if the gate pillars and general arrangement are on a large scale, 14 feet is not too wide ; but these dimensions cannot as a rule be exceeded with satisfactory results. FIG. 38. Where wrought iron is used and a very open effect is aimed at, fixed side panels with strongly braced and strutted hanging bars may be adopted. In the old examples of carriage courts or turns, the shape and size are decided by the plan of the house, of which they were really a part. The house was sometimes arranged as a square, with a court in the middle, or as an " E," " H," or " L," shaped block of buildings, with the court in one of the recessed parts. In an " E " shaped plan, as No. 39, the central wing often consisted of the entrance porch only, leaving the end wings to project a long distance beyond. In the " H " plan the recess at one end was often used as the carriage court, and the one at the other end as kitchen court. In the "L" plan the court was protected on one side only. At Blicking Hall, Norfolk, there 48 ENTRANCES AND CARRIAGE COURTS. FIG. 39. is an inner court, the space for carriages being between the stables on one side and the offices on the other. In many cases there were two carriage courts, a plan which has been adopted for Graythwaite Hall (111. No. 41), and which may in future have to be resorted to in those places where the existing court cannot be enlarged. In the planning of a modern house this is seldom done, the chief entrance being on the line of the main block, or at the end of a projecting wing, with no building whatsoever to flank either side of the carriage turn, and usually no terraces on the entrance side ; the park, pastures, and natural portions of the grounds being allowed to run up to the edge of the gravelled carriage space. This change of plan is probably responsible for the curved or circular form of court, the absence of architectural limitations giving the landscapist an oppor- tunity of introducing his curves, as in illustration No. 40. This feature is one of the most sensible things he has ever devised, .because the shape, if well considered, indicates the lines which a carriage FTC, 40. would most naturally follow when driving to or from the front entrance. In certain recent examples, especially where Georgian traditions are followed, there is a tendency to return to the architectural carriage court, by enclosing the remaining side with gate-houses or high masonry, as at Wood, N. Devon, (111. No. 22 ), and at Th ornton Manor, where the carriage court is enclosed from the public highway by the gatehouse illustrated in Nos. 81 and 82. In others a pleasing and protected court is formed by projecting the kitchen wing on one side (the windows being arranged on the opposite side), and the billiard wing on the other, frequently enclosing nearly the entire court. This desire for a well-screened carriage court is eminently FIG. 42. GG/WTHWAITE • MALL UMP5T01W" FIG. 41. 49 Shelter for drivers. ENTRANCES AND CARRIAGE COURTS. sane and practical, and if it cannot be obtained by any other means, then the enclosure should be protected by hedges or even climber-covered trellis. Whatever the form adopted, there are three conditions which should be carefully observed. First : the area of gravel between walls should be much greater than when the court is surrounded by grass, not less than 60 feet by 80 feet if to accommodate (entrance Oafes & Sfyefter. 6/evanotz ofjl/cove. FIG. 43. motor cars ; if surrounded by level grass, a gravelled space of 45 feet by 65 feet would suffice. These are medium widths, quite apart from the amount of gravel space suited to the position which the court or carriage turn occupies. Of course, in every case, aesthetic considerations, taken in conjunction with the special requirements of the particular case, will determine the size as well as the placing of the carriage court. To lay down rules for universal adoption would be worse than useless. The scale of the entrance fagade of the house is, of course, the predominant factor, while the contours of the surroundings and other local influences, as well as the nature and amount of FIG. 44. traffic, will need consideration. Again, where the drive is not broad enough to allow two strings of vehicles to pass one another easily, as may often be the case in very short drives, it may be necessary to give additional room for vehicles waiting their turn to leave the court. In very few instances will provision for the inclusion of flower beds be necessary, a clear line of demarcation between the approach and the pleasure ENTRANCES AND CARRIAGE COURTS. nn ..j LJ • FIG. 46. grounds being one of the regular functions of the carriage court. Where space permits, nothing looks better than a combination of grass and gravel as in Nos. 42 and 47, a treat- ment seen to perfection in the carriage courts to many of the stately homes of England. Secondly : the courts or turns should be level, or with slope only sufficient to throw off surface water. What has been said elsewhere with reference to the necessity for giving the house a level base to stand upon by means of terracing, bears with equal force on the planning of carriage courts. Indeed what is done for the garden front of the mansion by the former, is accomplished for the entrance facade by the latter, and, even though giving the carriage court a level base should FIG ., make it necessary to curtail its dimensions, this rule should be strictly enforced. In emphasizing this necessity, I am, of course, referring to the whole of the area or plateau occupied by the court. That the gravelled area for traffic must be flat, or almost so, goes without saying, for a steep cross fall would be extremely dangerous to carriages turning round to leave the court. Thirdly : Recognizing that many country houses are centres of social life and activities which make considerable demand on a late service of motors and carriages, the comfort of chauffeurs and drivers should be considered by arranging ample shelter. This may often be secured most simply by porters' lodges, such as were proposed for Holker, and illustrated in Nos. 43 and 44. Where there are projecting buildings or high walls, archi- tecturally treated recesses may be inserted there. These recesses are usually sufficient, but in very exposed positions they should be supplemented by masses of plantation, not high enough to give the house a buried appearance, but still effective in screening carriages and the porch. That provision for the shelter of drivers while waiting or in charge of restive animals which cannot be left for a moment, has not been more often seized upon as a factor possessing almost unbounded aesthetic possibilities, is remarkable. They would be particularly useful in this connection : in cases where the court is enclosed by long blank walls which need the relief which this insertion would provide, or where there is an awkward corner which seems to defy artistic treatment. Residences are often built with entrances in such positions as to necessitate carriage turns which have steep banks falling away from them. Wherever this is so, even though wind screens may not be required, protection should be provided, as nervous horses are apt to be affected with a feeling of insecurity unless something is done to prevent this. At Capernwray Hall a yew hedge three feet thick and five feet high was to be planted, cut square, with shaped yew pillars every twenty feet, on the top of the slope which runs the full length and across one end of the gravelled carriage turn (111. No. 45). This simple addition is all that is required to make this ample though exposed and dangerous-looking carriage space perfectly safe. FIG. 47. Small gardens better with- out drives. ENTRANCES AND CARRIAGE COURTS. Most of the garden plans illustrated in this work include a carriage court. A study of these, together with the sections and descriptions accompanying them, show why each particular form is adopted. In many places it is advisable to dispense with a drive or carriage court, such as small houses placed on small plots of land, because the privacy of a garden, and even the possibility of a garden, are destroyed by the ground monopolised by a drive or carriage circle. In my own tiny garden (described later among the examples of garden design) had space been provided to drive up to the front door, there had been practically no garden ; whereas, by placing the house near the road, a space of ground on the South and West is gained as compensation for the occasional short walk from the door to the carriage. Where a house is placed near a public road, an arrangement on the lines of the carriage court at Chiswick House (111. No. 46) would be advisable, or better still, a court the entrance to which can be set back well from the line of the roadway, as suggested on the accompanying sketch (111. No. 47). There are also many cases where, even though the house may be further from the road than in either of these examples, it may still be desirable to save the space which would otherwise be given up to a drive and carriage turn and connect the highway with the house by a covered way. Where the windows of the entertaining rooms are so placed that they would inevitably be overlooked from the carriage is an instance of this, or again, where the disposition of the house on the site would otherwise prevent privacy in the pleasure grounds. There are many instances in the suburbs of all large towns where land is too expensive to allow of large grounds where much would be gained and nothing lost by doing away with the " carriage sweep," as it is usually called, and substituting for it a covered way connecting the house with a carriage stance obtained by recessing the boundary wall on either side of the gateway. By a proper attention to the details of the covered way, a most delightful cloistered effect can often be given to the garden on one or both sides of it. FIG. 48. — ANCIENT GATEWAY AT FARFIELD HOUSE. |£ATES GARDEN f f PARK ^XW^rfTT-lfef CHAPTER V. In this chapter it is proposed to discuss the planning and design of those gates and fences which could not be included in the previous chapter dealing with entrances and carriage courts. These are two features which offer endless possibilities for effective treatment, and it is not too much to say that whatever the material employed, there is no case where either a gate or a fence is required about the estate which will not allow of the exercise of taste in its design and arrangement. While in large gardens attached to historic mansions care is usually exercised in these matters, in other cases it is more often the rule than the exception to find that the necessary fences and gates have been placed anywhere convenient and selected from the wholesale manufacturer's catalogue, without any conception of the fact that, without impairing their usefulness in the least, they may be so arranged as to enhance the beauty of the grounds they enclose or partition. Gates also have the further advantage that they may mark the end of a vista or, by a judicious use of open panels, may half reveal and half conceal the beauties of the garden beyond, and so tempt to further exploration. Fences, on the other hand, may support festoons of climbing roses or other greenery, may be part of a terrace scheme or pergola, or may lead the eye forward along a vista, or otherwise help the composition of the scene as a whole. In the old examples, both gates and fences were made to serve as ornaments to the gardens they graced, and the skilful design and clever craftmanship expended upon them were doubly pleasing because legitimately applied to utilitarian objects. In making new gardens, although they may not be in the same styles as the old work, it is equally desirable to give character and distinction to such details by attention to their design and placing. This does not mean that they should be overloaded with needless ornamentation, but that their necessary parts should be so designed as to harmonize with one another and with their surroundings. The almost infinite variety of fences of all sorts, wood, stone, brick or iron, or a combination of any two of these which is obtainable, should help to make the choice of one suitable for every position very easy, besides which there are hedges of many kinds and the sunk fence or ha-ha for occasional use in very special circumstances. Local conditions will often determine the character of a fence, especially in the smaller garden or the more remote portions of larger ones, and its character, whether elaborately finished or rustic, will depend on its relation to the residence and the purpose it is to serve. Too much can scarcely be said in favour of the old-fashioned hedgerows in districts where they thrive and, in well-wooded localities where stone is plentiful, for stone walls or, where the conditions are favourable, for a combination of the two, stone dykes for example surmounted by hedges, or hedges planted in the open, with walls where there are overhanging trees, or in other positions detrimental to the former fence. Msthetic possibilities °f gates and !ences- 55 GATES AND FENCES FOR GARDEN AND PARK. Destruction of fences on new property condemned. The ha-ha fence. FIG. 49. The almost infinite variety of trees from which hedges may be grown, makes their inclusion in every part of the domain quite appropriate. They are however more con- veniently dealt with in the chapter devoted to formal and clipped trees, and it will be sufficient here to protest against the somewhat unaccountable custom of demolishing all internal fences on new property. Of course if a tall and prominent hedge cuts like a knife right across the prospect, destroying the composition of the views and competing with the onward sweep of a vista, it must be removed and something less obtrusive put in its place, but in most cases there can ^ be no more mistaken policy than the removal of the hedges on new estates in the attempt to gain breadth. Unless the area under treatment is most exceptionally fortunate in the amount and disposition of its timber trees, the result will be not breadth but desolation and that sense of barren newness which it is the aim of the Landscape Architect to avoid at all times. The features which impart local character to a district are entirely destroyed, and instead we have an expanse of wind- swept land without protection for stock in stormy weather or shade in heat. Far better would it be to wait until the newly-formed plantations have more or less matured, when the gradual rearrangement of the fences may be undertaken without even temporary disfigurement of the estate. Estate owners are not usually averse to walls or hedges to screen them from the public highways and yet they fail to see the equal necessity for a definite line of de- marcation between portions of the estate serving different and even aesthetically incompatible purposes. It was as a result of this dislike of internal fences, that the ha-ha or invisible sunk wall came to be invented, the idea of which was usually to make a large meadow look as though it were part of the garden, instead of which it usually resulted in making the house appear to be placed down in the middle of a field without either protection or privacy. As already stated, there are exceptional cases where the ha-ha may be employed with success, but generally speaking it is to be avoided. From the very fact that it partakes of the nature of an extremely obvious trick on the senses which is almost immediately discovered, it cannot be permanently pleasing, especially in those numerous cases where it degenerates into an untidy ditch. In most instances it gives the impression of presenting a very poor excuse for unwarrantably curtailing the extent of the gardens, and is a silent confession that the grounds should have extended further than they do into the meadow and that a trick has been resorted to, to hide their meagre area. Again, a fence which makes it appear as though the cattle in the meadow could come right up to the windows of the house or walk over the flower beds cannot be satisfactory. It will often be found too that the ha-ha has proved insufficient to prevent intrusions and has been supplemented by untidy wire contrivances which have entirely defeated its original purpose, and there have been cases where short- sighted persons have walked over the edge of the hidden wall and fallen into the ditch. To sum up, the same principle should apply to fences as to everything else in a garden. Instead of being a sham or a make-believe all the garden appointments should honestly express their functions, and their artistic qualities should be inherent and not superimposed. In every case the purpose or purposes of the fence should be recognized, FIG. 50. GATES AND FENCES FOR GARDEN AND PARK. such as, for instance, screening a public road, giving protection from winds, dividing two estates or portions of the estate or gardens, or for training fruit trees against, and then that character of fence should be adopted which best fulfils the requirements of the case and the prevailing architectural conditions. FFG. 51. FIG. 52. As may be seen from many of the plans illustrating this work, the grounds to a mansion may often be almost entirely fenced in by the terrace and fruit walls. When the house stands in its own park, this is the most economical arrangement, as the balus- trade necessary to grace the terrace serves, the double purpose of ornament and use. Where the lawn extends beyond the terraces, however, some form of enclosing fence becomes necessary, and while it need not by any means be a solid wall, it should be substantial enough in appearance to give the impression of adequate protection against the inroads of cattle and suggest seclusion from the outer world. A more or less open arrangement, through which the grass of the Park can be seen and which will not cut off the view, will usually be preferable, and where the fence is straight and the ground fairly level, will not be difficult to obtain. A series of pillars in local stone or brick placed at regular intervals with the spaces between filled in with wrought-iron or open wood panels, such as those shewn in Nos. 51, 52 and 53, or, in more important cases, a dwarf wall with well-designed wrought-iron railings above, as in No. 50 would prove suitable. Here again local conditions should suggest original treatments. Thus in No. 49, the arrangement of slates and wires was suggested by the contrivances erected on the tops of walls in the Lake District, to prevent the hardy mountain sheep from escaping. In other places peeled larch might be used in connection with stone. Both forms produce quite a rustic fence only suitable for use at some distance from the residence, unless it were small or designed on very simple lines, while, if wrought wood panels were used, as in No. 54 the effect would be more finished. Where the ground is undulating and the fence follows the contours in sweeping lines, a strong and simple pattern of continuous bar railing is often suitable, but what is known as unclimbable fencing, especially the pattern adopted by various railway companies, should not be used unless a shrubbery is planted in front of it or a hedge trimmed square and a few inches higher than the railing, when it forms a neat and service- able arrangement, though perhaps a trifle hackneyed. Next to barbed wire or broken glass, however, nothing is more out of harmony with garden scenery than the spiked heads of unclimbable fencing unscreened by such a hedge as that just described. Strained wire too, as usually used, is quite unsuitable, though a nice fence may be made on the lines of the fruit espalier shown in No. 307 with oak posts and top rail. This form of fence, if arranged in straight lengths, is simple and effective, and there is much scope for *r~ FIG. 53- Fencing exhibiting local character- istics. Unclimb- able fencing. Strained wire fencing. 57 GATES AND FENCES FOR GARDEN AND PARK. originality in the shape given to the heads of the posts. In a similar fence shown in the view in gardens at Wraysbury near Staines (No. 55), the posts stand up about two feet six inches above the top rail, in the form of sugar-loaf finials which form supports for climbing roses. In this case, FIG. 54. as part of the fence is curved, the wires are omitted and the top rail consists of a plain round galvanized bar. Another simple wooden fence, consisting of a post with a cut and shaped head and a handrail placed angle-wise, is shown in No. 56. This form is particularly useful in the wild garden or at the side FIG. 55. — ROSE FESTOONS AT THE GRANGE, WRAYSBURY. of a woodland path where the ground slopes away rapidly so as to render it dangerous. There are many positions where a solid fence or wall would be inappropriate, as when a rounded mound, forming the middle distance of an extensive view from the residence, is the limit of the property. In such a case one of these simple arrangements of post and rail, or post, rail and wire, would be most useful. Peeled larch Another form of wooden fence, which, however, is more suitable for use in connection fencing. with cottages or lodges than in the garden proper or the home park, may be made from peeled larch unwrought, with strong posts, top and bottom rail filled in with a lattice made from the same material split down the centre of each piece arid the flat surfaces placed together as in No. 57. Oak A similar fence is often made from the smaller limbs of oak trees known as oak cord-wood. cord-wood, but, as these consist almost entirely of sap-wood, they will only last a very short time, and even pieces four inches thick will rot through at the ground level in the course of a year or two. The writer has met with many cases where this material GATES AND FENCES FOR GARDEN AND PARK. has been extensively used under the impression that all oak was very lasting, with consequent disappointment to the users, and the fact that, when new, it is often so hard that it is almost impossible to drive a nail into it, tends further to deceive the inexperienced as to its durability. Another cheap fence for cottage gardens and probably the most generally useful which could be contrived, is constructed of carpenter - made lattice framed between strong square posts, three-and-a-half FIG. 56. FIG. 57. inches in dia- meter and spaced five to six feet apart. The bottom rail should be kept clear of the ground, say about three inches, and the top rail wethered or rounded on its top edge and grooved to receive the laths, which should be about i^ by f inches thick and spaced eight or nine inches from centre to centre. A useful height for such a fence is about three feet six inches, and if it is not to be painted, the posts should be of oak, otherwise larch or pitch pine are better. Pillar and climbing roses, honeysuckle, and other flowering climbers can be most appropriately trained over it. Another form of fence, with framework of similar construction, is the old upright paling, which may either have the posts rising from the ground or from the top of a dwarf wall. The uprights or balusters may be ij inches by ij inches, set angle-wise or square, or flat pieces about two and a half inches broad and three quarters of an inch thick with the top ends cut to a pattern may be substituted. The possible vari- ations in the treatment of the details are unlimited. In Holland, the tops of the uprights are shaped and coloured to represent tulips or other flowers and the remainder painted white, but such a treatment would generally appear exotic in this country, though many ideas can be culled from the quaint Dutch gardens and also from Japanese ex- amples. Travellers in the latter country speak enthusiastically of the artistic taste and clever craftsmanship displayed in the fences. Even the tiniest gardens are fenced by paling which, in character, is simplicity itself, exhibiting perfect taste in the spacing of the several parts, the sizes and thickness of the woodwork, or woodwork and stone combined as the case may be, minute attention being given to details, and all without sacrificing in the slightest the durability of the work, but rather the reverse, clever contrivances being made to nullify the effects of the weather by means of a pantile roof over the railings or by crowning each post with a metal cap. A distinct class of wooden fence is obtained by the use of split or riven oak, which is particularly appropriate for the division of suburban gardens or as a protection from a footpath or road. It has the merit of being cheap when its durability is considered, and looks picturesque when weather- stained, and particularly so when overgrown with climbers. As will be seen from Nos. 58, 59 and 60, the material allows of varied and original treatment and some forms are decidedly ornamental, FIG. 5s. though the ordinary pattern, Lattice fencing. Upright paling. Riven oak fencing. 59 Stone walls. GATES AND FENCES FOR GARDEN AND PARK. which, on the front side, shows nothing but a series of overlapping split battens arranged vertically and cut to the same height, will often meet all requirements. This simple FIG. 59. FIG. 60. pattern may be given a little more finish by cutting the heads of the posts to a variety of designs, by the addition of an oak capping to the railing or by varying the lengths of the split oak spads. No. 60 shows a fence having all three features. A combination of split oak and oak wattles also split is shown in No. 59, while No. 61 shows much the same fence built in between brick piers to screen off the kitchen garden from the grounds designed by the author for T. Pegram, Esq., of Hoylake, Cheshire. The design and arrangement of stone walls depend so much on local conditions that it is impossible to do more than indicate a few main principles for general application. The delightful garden wall at Alton Towers, Staffordshire, which has been so often illustrated, for instance, though so appropriate to its surroundings, would be quite out of place in most circumstances. A wall if rightly placed cannot however fail to be pleasing in any locality in which there is local stone from which to build it, though a brick wall in a stone district or a stone wall where it is obviously an imported feature may be equally out of place. The prime cost, of course, will be higher than for a J^0^iC>- ,^|k>!^t& -/ 1 m w2K#0L .jdtes* FIG. 6l. wooden fence or even ordinary iron railings, but it will also be more durable. It is, however, dressed or tooled stonework which is costly and, for ordinary estate work, dry built walls (i.e. without mortar) provide all that is necessary, especially when the coping stone can be set in cement. Tasteful A well-constructed dry wall is always pleasing and each district has its own mode use of local of building to suit the character of the local stone, whether quarried stone, slate, cobbles, materials. nibble or flints or a combination of any of these, with or without bricks or tiles. Where, for instance, cobbles, roughly-squared stone and slates can be obtained, quite charming effects may be produced by combining them, as in No. 62, and examples of such walls 60 GATES AND FENCES FOR GARDEN AND PARK. i J : j i ' i :; ] FIG. 62. are often found along the Deeside in Aberdeenshire, a county in which walling has been brought to the perfection of a fine craft. Flints and stone, flints and brick, or flints, brick and tiles, all may be arranged in many tasteful and original combinations, and the flints themselves may either be used whole so as to present a rounded surface or split in two to show the dark glass-like interior. For walls nearer the residence, where a stronger Coping. construction and more finished appearance are neces- sary, squared rubble laid in mortar may be used with a hog-back or rounded coping, as in No. 63 or No. 64, where two courses of slates have been inserted under the coping to give a little relief. No. 65 shows a similar coping and No. 66 the same with two courses of tiles inserted. The two latter could be closelv FIG. 63. • -5TONC WALL FIG. 64. TWO COURSES OF TILES THE OUT; BE.ICK WflLL FIG. 67. FIG. 65. FIG. 66. copied in brick where necessary, and instead of the two courses of tiles, there may be three courses, of which the middle one consists of roofing tiles placed so as to show the "frogs" as in No. 67, so as very cheaply to obtain the effect of a dentil course. By the ingenious arrangement of roofing, paving and the many shapes of ridge tiles, quaint and effective copings may be evolved suitable for all sorts of positions where a brick wall is necessary, and in some parts of the country oval land-draining tiles are made with ribbed exterior surfaces which make a simple and effective balustrade. Open panels too may be constructed by piling curved ridge tiles in a symmetrical manner. Walls dividing small gardens or surrounding rose, fruit or other enclosed pleasaunces, may often be improved by the adoption of some of these methods. It cannot be too strongly urged, how- ever, that, from the aesthetic standpoint, the least satisfactory boundary wall is that which is built of machine-made red bricks of even colour such as are common in Lancashire and North and South Wales, but there are many cases where a deep- coloured local brick is made, not too even in shade, which is admirable, while grey or brindled rough bricks, especially if only two inches thick, make an excellent and not very expensive boundary or for dividing adjoining villa gardens. 61 FIG. 68. — GARDEN GATE WITH BELLS ATTACHED TO RING WHEN MOVED. Brick walls. GATES AND FENCES FOR GARDEN AND PARK. Terrace walls, fruit walls, and the wing walls to entrances are dealt with elsewhere, but much that has been said of garden walls in general applies equally to them. Wrought- The employment of wrought iron for garden fences has not of recent years received iron fences, the attention it should, partly, no doubt, on account of the initial expense and partly from a failure to discriminate between wrought iron of good workmanship and cast iron Large entrance gates. IT FIG. 69. — SIMPLE WOODEN ENTRANCE GATES. imitations of the old work. In the best periods of English garden design, wrought iron was always held as almost essential to its highest development and might to-day be employed more frequently when garden improvements are under consideration. Nothing could be better for the fences between the forecourt of a Georgian residence and the highway, as at No. 50, where it is desirable to hide as little of the facade as possible. In such cases the fence should generally be designed on perfectly simple lines with the ornamental emphasis occurring seldom and con- centrated at special points to emphasize the main lines of the composition as a whole. This result is most often attained by reserving the ornament for pilasters or gates, as in the design just referred to. Having thus briefly sketched the more important of the various kinds of fences which may be used in the garden, we may now consider the gates to be used in conjunction with them, and without which they would be incomplete. Large entrance gates are dealt with in another chapter, and the number of folding gates which are required for other situations is more or less restricted, so that it has only been thought necessary to give designs for two, one in iron and the other in wood. The first, No. 70, was designed as part of the scheme for laying out gardens at Green- woods, Stock, the architecture of FIG. 70 ---GATE AM\ STEPS AT GREENWOODS, STOCK, ESSEX. 62 GATES AND FENCES FOR GARDEN AND PARK. QAW3EN G/3E-HOU5E Lffl FIG. 71. 63 Postern gates. Garden doors. FFG. 72. GATES AND FENCES FOR GARDEN AND PARK. the mansion demanding a quiet treatment of the surrounding details; and the second (111. No. 69) would be useful where access to the home park were required for carts, etc., from somewhere on the route of the main drive or other rather prominent positions. Reference to any of the plans given in this book will show the important part which postern and other small gates take in a well-designed garden. As to the character and design of individual gates, every- thing depends on the position and importance of the walks to which they give access, and the style of the residence to which they lead. The steps and gateway just referred to and which are shown in illustration No. 70, occupy a position on the central axial line through the house, and are placed on the terrace which divides the old garden from the new extension, a position which justifies the ornamental treatment adopted. The gateway in the balustraded wall shown in illustration No. 50 connects a large carriage court with the home park, the importance of the residence demanding such an arrangement. In other cases, to mark divisions between the various parts of a garden, quaintly-designed lych-gates may be used, or little gatehouses such as that shown in No. 71, which would serve the purpose of an arbour as well as a gate canopy. In other cases, where simpler treatment would be more in harmony with the surroundings, either of the gates shown in Nos. 72 and 73 might be used. The first of these was erected at Wraysbury, near Staines, and connects the lawns and paddock. It is more elaborate than would usually be required for such a position, but was justified by its surroundings. In other cases, the one shown in No. 73, and erected at Shrublands, Windermere, would be more suitable. The gateway No. 50 with the open railing ; the gateway illustrated in No. 61 with the over- head arrangement, and side panels, the one at Skibo Castle designed for Andrew Carnegie, Esq., D.C.L. (111. No. 74), and the opening and gate with its row of clanging bells at Ashton-on-Ribble (No. 68), are all modern examples of gates on which smith or carpenter has exercised his craft, and all are arranged to mark divisions between parts of gardens, while Nos. 75 and 76 give two antique Spanish wrought-iron gates which have been re-erected in an English garden. Garden doors made to fit arched openings in fruit walls or the fence to the public highway are often required, and for their design and arrangement we have a large amount of precedent in the old English walled gardens. There is a perfectly plain but delightfully proportioned one at Melbourne Hall, Derbyshire, the seat of Admiral Lord Walter Kerr, and another rather more elaborate, and designed in the classic renaissance style, at Woolhampton Hall, Berkshire. Those shown in Nos. 299 and 300, erected in gardens by the Author, are all designed in the spirit of the old work. In this class of door more than any other it is impossible to use stock designs. Every site needs individual treatment, and the most should be made of the individual note. Where the door gives access from the highway, a sense of privacy is required, as it would be the entrance for members of OVEB-AECHEl) QATE e"»feJ of W1NDEPMECE K1G. 73. 64 GATES AND FENCES FOR GARDEN AND PARK. the household only, and where it gives access to n walled garden for roses or old-fashioned perennials, after the style of the old examples, a glimpse of the brilliant colour masses within might be obtained through open panels or over the door, which might not in this case be made high enough entirely to fill up the arched opening. For such doors, oak is to be preferred, and if possible English Oak, as this is not only the most durable but has an infinitely better appearance than the American Oak, which comes next in order of durability. Teak is also suitable, as it is lasting wood, but most people will prefer the appearance of oak, especially when weathered. Before leaving the subject of garden gates, four designs are given for small entrances to little gardens. The first two, Nos. 77 and 78, are arched over, No. 77 being intended to be built in local stone, rough punch and hammer dressed, and No. 78 being designed for building in rough slate or other material with natural cleavage lines, the ball over the gate being the only portion rough punched. The other two remaining gateways, Nos. 79 and 80, are simpler still, and have been designed with a view to strict economy. All four would lend themselves well to use in the outlying portions of larger properties, and would be quite suitable, for instance, as the entrance to a wild garden, park or paddock, and other places which are not strictly within the ornamental grounds. SKIBO <2\3Tffi • A CATHAY Gates for little gardens. FIG. 74. FIGS. 75 & 76. ANTIQUE SPANISH GATES ERECTED IN AN ENGLISH GARDEN. GATES AND FENCES FOR GARDEN AND PARK. The subject of gates and fences has been specially dealt with, in the hope that more care and thought may be bestowed upon them than has been in the past. It is hoped jcm,! iftit^r. tffity'' '"*.i*:«x FIG. 78. that estate owners, instead of surrendering inevitably to the fence-maker's catalogue, will, by the aid of the examples given, be helped to evolve designs which shall have the merit of individuality and special suita- bility to the needs of the particu- lar case. It is usual to undervalue that which is easily accessible, and to value that which is exotic and remote, and in no case has this tendency been more pronounced than in the design of gates, and it is hoped that the examples which have been given of simple designs, lending themselves to sound and honest construction by the local craftsman, may help to remove this tendency. FIG. 79. FIG. 8O. 66 FIG. 8l.— GATEHOUSE SCREENING CARRIAGE COURT AT THORNTON MANOR, CHESHIRE. From the Highway. FIG. 82.— GATEWAY SCREENING CARRIAGE COURT AT THORNTON MANOR, CHESHIRE. From the Carriage Court. ENTTR^NICE TO bPOCMANCWOOD hCV5E . MI3HOBE VSA CHAPTER VI. Those who have studied the writings of the Early Victorian school of Landscape Gardeners, and particularly those persons acquainted with the actual work of this period, will have noticed how often the drive, which is generally the most important accessory of a country domain, seems to be treated as an unfortunate necessity. At best its aesthetic possibilities are considered to be limited to the focussing of vistas or views of the residence or park landscape, for which purpose it is arranged in a series of more or less meaningless sinuous curves. Such expedients are seldom satisfactory. They may please on first acquaintance, but, as soon as their artificiality becomes apparent, they partake of the nature of tricks, and " tricks," even in landscape gardening, invariably pall in the end. To commence the task of designing and laying down the lines of the drive to a country house with such limited conceptions of its aesthetic possibilities, would be a fatal policy. When we consider the importance of first impressions, and that, in the case of every house which stands in its own grounds, they are gained from the main approach, we at once see that no feature is so capable of giving or, on the other hand, destroying the dignity and sense of fitness in the setting of the mansion. It is also necessary to remember that, on the placing of the drive, will depend the disposition of many other features which have a direct connection with it, or which must be so arranged as to secure privacy from it. It therefore follows that drives and approaches are to the garden designer what the skeleton lines of a conventional design, or even the leading lines of an unconventionalized statue or picture, are to the designer, artist or sculptor. Notwithstanding much that has been written to the contrary, the questions of bal- ance, symmetry, flow of line and the other factors which go to make up what we call " composition " in a picture or statue, all have their counterpart in the designing of drives and must receive due attention if the result is to be pleasing. There is, of course, this difference, that, in the painting or sculpture, the designer is unhampered by utilitarian considerations, while in the case of the designer of a drive, many such factors must receive attention if it is to fall naturally and fittingly into the scheme of things. This is, of course, true of all garden planning, but in the present instance, where purely practical considerations come more prominently forward than in any other branch of the subject, except, perhaps, the arrangement of entrances and carriage turns, it is especially necessary to remember the close connection which must exist between the practical and aesthetic. The result must be a compromise but need be none the worse for that, and may prove ^Esthetic value of carnage drives. 69 DRIVES, AVENUES, AND SERVICE ROADS. Unnecess- arily long drives. the fallacy of the popular dictum as to the futility of compromises. Even the artist must compromise with his medium and is bound by its limitations. Another misconception of the Early Victorian and Georgian schools of landscape gardening which it is necessary to guard against, is that a long and meandering drive adds dignity to a residence. From the time of Repton, or even earlier, it was sought to express the value and state of a property by the length of its private roads, and in several of the better known of our lordly domains, the direct connection with the highway, guarded by symmetrically-placed gatehouses, was removed and miles of long, serpentine drives laid out. In some cases the drive is even made to run parallel with the public highway for a considerable distance, even where the most rational and direct planning of the approach to the house would result in no drive at all, but merely in a carriage court screened from the public road by gate houses or a high wall and gates, a plan frequently adopted in the approaches to the old manor houses. Though such an arrange- ment may, at first sight, appear to some people to be aesthetically undesirable, it is, in effect capable of the most charming and dignified treatment, and has the further advantage of giving to the remainder of the grounds more privacy and seclusion than can be obtained by any other means, especially where the main entrance door to the mansion and the public highway are both on the North side of the house, while the cost of forming and maintaining an unnecessary drive is avoided. The question of cost, both of construction and maintenance is a very serious one, and experience proves that long meandering drives, unless protected for their whole length on both sides by fencing, are very difficult to keep clean where there are cattle, and that, under any circumstances, they are not so good for quick transit as the wide, skilfully macadamized and tarred highway with which they compete. A striking instance of this Early Victorian fallacy is given in the plan of Athelhampton Hall (111. No. 86). Here, there is very little doubt that the approach to this beautiful and ancient domain was originally on much the same lines as those to which the Author was privileged to restore them, as shown, on the plan, but, when he was called in, the drive took the course shown by the dotted lines, and there is no doubt that the change from the simple, direct and dignified approach to one which runs close to and parellel to the highway for quite a distance, was made when this false taste was in vogue. This instance is a particularly happy one, as a glance at the plan shows immediately which method is to be preferred, whether considered from the aesthetic or practical standpoints. Of course there are isolated cases where the character of a highway so alters as it approaches the house that it is undesirable for the drive to leave it at the point nearest to the mansion. Such a case occurred in the gardens laid out by the Author for Arthur Roberts, Esq., of Windermere. Here, the roadway, after being of a reasonable width and more or less satisfactorily graded for a considerable distance, suddenly deteriorated and became little more than a farm track. In this instance, the only satisfactory solution of the problem of the route the drive should take, was reached by placing its commencement at the extreme corner of the estate nearest to the point where the roadway narrowed so that only a few yards of the poorer portion must be traversed before reaching the main entrance gates, not more, in fact, than it would be possible to regrade by agreement with the rural authorities without prohibitive expense to the proprietor of the mansion. Another exception to the rule that the drive should be as direct as possible, must be made in favour of those domains reached through exceptionally beautiful scenery, where, by reasonable deflection of its course, the approach can be taken through some especially fine country or romantic glen. No economic advantage, for instance, could justify the removal of the drive through Hawkestone Park in Staffordshire from under the natural arch of rock which at present spans it, and there are numberless instances of a similar kind in other parts of the country. This acknowledgment of 70 DRIVES, AVENUES, AND SERVICE ROADS. exceptional features is not to be confounded with the neglect of every other consideration in order to focus from the route a series of more or less forced vistas and views which we have already so strongly deprecated. The two things are entirely distinct both in their intent and result. While it is impossible to arrange the various forms of main approaches to country mansions into hard-and-fast classes, they may be broadly divided into naturally -planned drives following the contours of the country through which they pass ; formally arranged drives, usually part of a symmetrical arrangement of drive, entrance and carriage court ; and tree-lined avenues, straight or curved. It should be explained that while in Scotland all carriage drives, whether curved, serpentine, or straight, tree-lined or not, are called avenues, in this work, for purposes of distinction, the English usage is followed, only roadways bordered by trees placed at even distances apart being so designated. In England, carriage ways, whether curved or straight, which are not bordered by trees, are called drives, while subsidiary roads used by tradesmen or estate servants and connecting with the kitchen court, stables or farm steadings and not used as principal carriage ways, are called service roads. The whole subject of drive design is more dependent on scale and proportion than upon any other factor, and it is this which will determine which of the above forms shall be adopted in each individual case. It has always been a common error so to treat the approach as to convey an idea of importance altogether out of keeping with the size of the mansion which it serves, though, as stated when dealing with entrances in another chapter, the added requirements of fast motor traffic make an arrangement suitable which, under older conditions, would have been somewhat grandiose. Of all forms of drive, the stately avenue, straight from end to end, and bordered by patriarchal elms making a lofty overarching leafy canopy, or a double avenue securing a wide open glade to the mansion is the one expressing most dignified importance and demanding the most imposing architectural adjuncts to justify it. Such an avenue, on any but the smallest scale, would be quite out of place in connection with anything but an important mansion, and even there great care will be needed to get length, breadth, distance between trees, lodges, entrances and gates, all so proportioned as to fall naturally into their places and to give that sense of ordered relation and simple dignity to which such an arrangement must owe its whole effect. As a general rule for adoption in all ordinary cases it may be stated that an avenue should be absolutely straight and level from end to end unless there is an even rise throughout its whole length towards the house, and while such a rise, if not too great, is probably even better than an absolutely level course, the reverse, or a drop towards the house, is, of all arrangements, the very worst, giving the house the appearance of being in a hole. Repton, in referring to the formation of avenues, states, as his opinion, that the effect is heightened where the route followed is over hill and dale. Probably he spoke of the appearance as viewed from the side and not up the green aisle, and of avenues with green drives not spanning a roadway, for straight roads and drives traversing a series of hills and hollows lose, to a great extent, that perspective which gives them their stately appearance. This is easily seen if the spectator stands on the first rise and looks towards the last one when only the summits are seen, the intervening road in the hollow being lost to view. It is important, therefore, when making a straight drive over undulating ground, that the heights should be reduced and the hollows filled to obtain length of line. When, however, there is a swinging hollow stretching from end to end of the avenue, and not so depressed in the centre as to bring the leafy canopy at that point level with the eye as viewed from one end, the effect is almost as good as on a level course. This may be seen on a large scale on the Kenilworth Road a short Different classes of drives. Importance of scale. Avenues. i Repton on avenues. DRIVES, AVENUES, AND SERVICE ROADS. Uniformity of size in the trees. distance from Coventry, though, in this case, the absence of some culminating architectural feature to close the vista is much felt. The most important point in the formation of an avenue is that the trees shall be chosen and arranged with due regard to uniformity in their size and habit when fully grown. This is most difficult where one portion of the route is more exposed than another to cutting winds, but much may be done by obtaining the whole quantity required from one nursery and selecting individual trees for each position. fa_. M \ \ \ ' \ / — , — I r- / V / \ , \ , \ \ ! Double avenues. FIG. 83. FIG. 84. GRASS. All the remarks on the choice of trees for garden work given in another chapter apply equally to those required for avenues, but, while in a smoky district or one where towering height must be sacrificed for sturdy growth, the tap-root must be cut and the leading shoot pruned at a later date ; in the open country there are many positions where by far the finest result would be obtained by planting closer together and leaving tap-root and leading shoot in their natural state. Arrange- The distance apart the trees should be planted in the rows at either side of the ment of avenue depends not only on the species to be used, but also on whether those on either trees. side of the roadway are to be placed opposite to one another as in the first sketch (No. 83) or diagonally as in the second (No. 84). The former arrangement is to be recommended where the surroundings of the avenue are restrained and conventionalized, and the latter where it passes through more or less natural scenery. The spaces between the trees in the former case would vary from thirty feet for Lombardy poplars to sixty feet for full-grown elms, and in the latter rather less, ^2\ while in planting an entirely new avenue and where immediate effect is desired, double this number of ===== trees might be inserted and half ^p of them removed as soon as they "^^^ have sufficiently grown to crowd each other inconveniently. Where the scale of the mansion FIG. 85. and its surroundings are such as to warrant the greatest magnificence possible, double avenues, of four lines of trees, may be formed, especially where side tracks for foot passengers are desired in addition to the central carriage drive. In such cases, the two central lines of trees would be planted opposite to one another, and the outer two, diagonally to the trees nearest to them (No. 85). Additional effect may be obtained by pollarding the inner rows of trees and allowing the outer ones to tower above them, an arrangement which will be familiar to those who know Chelsea Hospital, D R I VE. * 72 DRIVES, AVENUES, AND SERVICE ROADS. though in this case again one feels that the avenues are a little meaningless without the incorporation of suitable architectural features to focus the vista, and also that pollarding should not be resorted to except where it is a more or less prominent local characteristic. Pleached avenues are very useful where a formal arrangement of their surroundings Symmetnc- is in evidence, but where the scale of the whole lay-out is not important enough for a^V the towering elm avenue. They are most successfully formed of elms or beech and the Pianne"' best example familiar to Londoners is probably at Romney Road, Greenwich, where it passes between the Royal Naval College and the Royal Hospital School. Green avenues which do not form part of the main approach to the mansion but drives. THE GARDENS AT ATHELHAMPTON . HALL • DORCHESTER w~ PLAN SHEWING PROPOSED ALTERATION TO FIG. 86. are designed solely as a feature of the pleasure grounds or home park, are dealt with in another chapter. The symmetrically planned drive shares with the avenue its particular adaptability to a position where grandeur is essential. The drive and entrance at Athelhampton Hall (111. No. 86), already referred to, may be taken as a typical instance of this type of drive which has worked out well in practice, and produced a result which is dignified and thoroughly in keeping with the beautiful old architecture up to which it leads. As is particularly necessary in this class of drive, the gate-houses were designed by the late Mr. Dan Gibson in a style exactly to harmonise with that of the old residence, with an arch over the gateway and massive doors, the stables also being rearranged to suit their altered surroundings. In this case the surface of the drive is level, and this is 73 DRIVES, AVENUES, AND SERVICE ROADS. Informal drives. best, except where it is rather long in relation to its breadth, when an even rise towards the house will lessen the foreshortening and give an effect of better proportion. Formal drives of this kind are usually enclosed between clipped hedges with a space for grass between the hedge and the carriage-way, as shown on the plan just referred to, and on the correct proportioning of the breadth of the roadway and grass verges and the height and treatment of the hedge to the length of the whole, much of the ultimate effect will depend. Such drives cannot, however, be made more than a certain length without loosing the perspective and dwarfing the mansion. No very hard-and-fast rule can be laid down FIG. 87. as to the greatest length possible, as so much depends on the height and breadth of the facade of the house up to which it leads, but in most cases, fifteen hundred feet would be a maximum. In public boulevards and park avenues this length may be much exceeded by placing a piece of statuary or other monumental feature in the middle of the roadway at its central point, i.e., equidistant from either end, thus focusing the perspective ; but in a private drive such an arrangement would usually be quite out of keeping. Where the house is a long way from the highway, too far for a successful treatment on these lines, the best way would be to make a shorter formal drive at the end nearest the house, designed as a part of the more formal pleasure grounds, and treat the rest of it in a free manner either with a drive laid down in sweeping curves, or better still, where circumstances allow, by a bifurcated drive, as in the sketch (No 87). The point where the formal arrangement ends will need very strongly marking and the best way will be to place the lodges here with handsome gates between, preferably of wrought iron, and to treat the more distant gates at the roadway quite simply with simple wooden palings to the wings, the whole painted white unless in oak when rampart roses could grow over it in luxuriant masses. The lodges to symmetrically planned drives will themselves usually be best if symmetrically arranged, as shown in the two illustrations of this type of drive which are given (111. Nos. 86 and 87). Those appearing on the heading to this Chapter would be suitable in some instances, while, in others, where greater dignity is required, a gatehouse with an arched portal and probably groined vaulting over the gateway would be more in keeping. In the making of informal drives, the whole effect depends on a careful consideration of the contours, and an arrangement of the line of route which recognizes them and emphasizes all that is pleasing in the lay of the ground. It is to these purely local conditions and the way they are deftly woven into the scheme, that we owe much of the pleasure derived from the approaches to many a country seat. In approaching the individual problem, the foremost consideration is to adopt a route which, if possible, will allow the drive to leave the public road at a lower level than the house, so that it may rise towards it and so increase its apparent elevation, but this must be done without sacrificing directness and convenience or belying the contours, or the result will be strained and affected in the extreme. 74 DRIVES, AVENUES, AND SERVICE ROADS. No paper scheme for a drive of this kind can possibly be successful. Only by first planning on paper, then pegging on to the ground, adjusting by the eye and re-surveying on to paper, readjusting and repeating this process several times, can the best route be decided on. For the purpose of marking out the curves on the ground, small pegs are no use. Surveyors' poles are best, but where these are not immediately available, slaters' laths as long as possible will do almost equally well if they are white and clean so as to show up well against fallow ground, turf or brake, as the case may be. Where these are used and there are sudden dips in the ground a few longer stakes will also be required such as may be made from plasterers' anglebead. Dahlia stakes may be also used if unpainted, but those which have the usual dark green colour are unsuitable. The reason for using long stakes to mark out the course of the drive will be seen immediately if we peg it with short ones and then substitute long ones, putting them into the holes made by the short ones. It will be at once apparent how much the unevenness of the ground warps the perspective, so that curves which look nice as at first pegged out would be found to be far too flat in the hollows and too sharp on the breast of a hill when the inevitable grading is completed. In order to judge more correctly of the effect of raising the surface of the finished drive above the natural level in the hollows, and lowering it at the highest points, and also to test the result of substituting even gradients for the original rough hummocks covering rising ground, a further expedient may be resorted to. Having fixed the long pegs in position, a number of pieces of scarlet chair webbing are procured, one for each peg and about eighteen inches or more long. These are loosely knotted round each peg so that they can be slid up and down, but so that they will remain where placed. Now cut a piece off a spare lath rather longer than the deepest cutting is expected to be, and using it as a rule, slide all the pieces of webbing up or down the stake until they are the height of your measure above the proposed finished level of the drive at each point. By running the eye along the line of red on the stakes, a very approximate idea of the ultimate result can be obtained, though due allowance must be made for the fact that ciirves will look flatter on this single line of pegs than they will on a drive of twelve feet or more broad. The whole can then be surveyed and marked on the plan, the amount of cutting or filling at each peg being noted. Of course the above method of working must be subsidiary to a proper series of sections prepared from measurements taken over the course of the drive with a surveyor's level and plotted on to paper ; but unfortunately, in ordinary road engineering, practical considerations usually determine the route and levels, while in the case of drives, aesthetic factors must also be considered so that visual helps such as those described must be used to assist the surveyor's measurements. There are two other ways in which the ordinary methods of the road or railway engineer fail aesthetically when applied to drives and service roads. One relates to the arrangement of his curves and the other to his gradients. The former are laid down to fixed radii of circles tangent to one another or to intermediate straight lines. Where aesthetic conditions are sought, these set radii must give place to catenary curves, the graduated curves assumed by a chain or rope when loosely suspended between two points. The reason for this is not far to seek, for a moment's reflection will show that this is the curve any wheeled vehicle naturally takes (unless running on rails), and consequently is the best to adopt practically as well as aesthetically. With regard to levels, the railway engineer's lines consist of one straight gradient, or " bone " as the workman will call it, running into another or into a level stretch, and it will invariably be found that, on facing a rise where there is a flatter gradient below meeting a steeper one above, there will appear to be a sunk place in the surface where the two meet, while when the conditions are reversed and the lower gradient is Practical planning of curved drives. Engineers' and Land- scape Arch- itects' methods contrasted. DRIVES, AVENUES, AND SERVICE ROADS. the steeper one, the surface of the drive will appear to be raised too high at the point of junction. The remedy is to plot all the gradients on to the sections in swinging curves at their junctions, at the same time keeping changes in both direction and gradient as few as possible. The accompanying sketch (111. No. 88) shows, by full lines, the engineer's methods in the bottom of a hollow and, by dotted lines, how the Landscape Architect would alter them. FIG. oo. Probably the most effective curved drive ever designed by the author was one something under half a mile in extent which, for its whole length, was carried in one long simple sweep round an amphitheatre of hillside and rising at one gradient the whole way from the entrance gates to the forecourt of the house. The railway engineer's methods of working his sections will also need adaptation to the special requirements of private road work. The best way is to take a line of levels along the centre of the proposed route, and at each point measured, to take a level on either side, say fifteen feet away to right and left. The three lines of levels thus obtained are all superimposed over one datum line in three different coloured inks, making the centre line the most prominent to ensure clearness. This method, of course, causes a little distortion in the lengths of the side sections on the curved portions of the drive as they are represented as being a little longer than they are on the inside of a curve, and are shortened on the convex side of the bend. This, however, can easily be allowed for in calculating the proportions of cutting and filling. It has the advantage of showing the cross-grading at every point at a glance without reference to the cross sections usually prepared in such cases. The writer's own method is to plot the three superimposed sections to a much larger vertical than horizontal scale, and then to add the centre line only, drawn to the same scale as the horizontal measurements, using the same lines of heights above the datum. The arrangement of the surface levels can then be proceeded with on the upper set of lines, and are afterwards transferred to the lower centre line as a check, from which the resulting gradients can be read without calculation. The amount of cutting or filling at any point can, of course, be more accurately computed from the higher set of lines. Where the subsoil is of such a nature that all the roadmaking materials can be obtained in making the excavated portion of the drive, the finished level should be plotted on to the sections, but where these will have to be carted from a distance, the found- ation levels should be laid down, thus allowing an equal amount of cutting and filling. It would seem, at first sight, as though rather more filling than cutting would be necessary, as the material used for filling packs so much more loosely than before being disturbed, even when it has had time to settle solid, but the amount used in making up the banks on the low side of a cross slope will just about absorb the surplus in all ordinary cases. Ease of As to gradients, these should always be as easy as possible. The sight of horses gradient. struggling up a steep drive is not conducive to that sense of repose which it is the first object of the garden designer to obtain, and even in the case of a motor-car, slow threshing uphill on the lowest gear tends to be irritating. As a general rule, gradients of more than one in twelve are to be avoided, though the whole question is relative to the general contours of the district. What is the best possible in one place would be distinctly bad in another. In extreme instances in the English Lake District, where the residence may be placed in an almost inaccessible position for the sake of a unique view, the writer has occasionally been compelled to adopt a gradient of one in six-and-a-half or seven for short distances. This may be taken as being the steepest slope up which it is possible to get a heavy luggage cart or other loaded vehicle. 76 DRIVES, AVENUES, AND SERVICE ROADS. FIG. 89. FIG. 90. The curved drive, running through natural or park-like scenery which is most success- ful, will be that which is so designed as to fall naturally and fittingly into its place as a part of the general landscape, and which has the appearance of being planned on the only possible lines. This means that, in its design, the two factors of directness and ease have been kept equally in mind by its designer and balanced one against the other. In the term " ease " must be included a careful consideration of the contours of the country through which the drive runs and making its curves and gradients emphasize its undulations. Any curve which opposes them will strike the user at once as being in the very worst taste as well as being constructionally bad. In most instances, the effort to bring the course of the drive into conformity with the requirements of the contours will result, at the first attempt, in a series of short and somewhat irritating curves, and it is in the combination of a number of these into one long, graceful sweep, as in the accompanying sketch (111. No. 89), that the designer's artistic capabilities will receive their fullest test. In this important work, it should always be borne in mind that both curves and gradients look much natter on paper than on the ground, owing to the fore- shortening effect of perspective, and this is again one of the reasons why practical work on the ground must go hand-in-hand with designing on paper, if the best result is to be obtained. The junctions of curved drives with service roads require very careful adjustment in the gradients of each at the point of connection. All road makers know the difficulty of joining the varying gradients together satisfactorily, and only very careful attention to these as the work proceeds can prevent an awkward appearance ; and in the case of the planning of the connection, equal care is necessary. The two roads must meet in a natural and easy manner, or, to put it technically, their centre lines must be tangent to one another at the point of junction. Where possible, entirely separate service roads should be constructed for the use of tradesmen and for the necessary carting to the residence and stables. Where this cannot be provided and the main drive serves all purposes for a portion of its length, care should be taken in the design of the connection with the service road that visitors cannot mistake it for the main drive. This may be accomplished by making the service road narrower than the main drive, by keeping the junction as far from the residence as possible, by making the junction by a sharp curve at a point where the drive is fairly straight, and by planting the space at either side of the junction as shown in the sketch (No 90). Curved drives offend more often than any other form in being so designed as to minimize or even destroy all privacy in the pleasure grounds. In one instance in the FIG. 91. Effect of curves. Junctions. Service roads. Preserva- tion of privacy. 77 DRIVES, AVENUES, AND SERVICE ROADS. writer's experience the drive was taken round three sides of the house to the front door. Unless the main entrance to the house has been very badly arranged, there could be no excuse for this or for so placing the approach that it comes in front of the entertaining room windows or overlooks the lawns or flower gardens. Even in the worst cases a screen hedge should be included in the scheme. Double Double drives, enabling the traffic to return to the highway without turning round drives. in a more or less confined carriage court, and without having to pass other vehicles proceeding to the house, are almost invariably curved, otherwise, in most instances, in looking along the drive, one entrance would be visible from the other, so destroying all privacy and any attempt to create a sense of breadth of treatment. A notable exception may be made in favour of those cases where the house is approached by an equal amount of traffic from two directions, as in the sketch (No. 91), say from the railway station on the one side and the village or town on the other. GARDENS ai BROXD - OAKS ^ACCRNGTON OHIZIE (fir ^tr \3eqge wiaeaipwe 14 lul FIG. 92. Speaking generally, however, the double drive is the prerogative of those houses which stand in their own grounds but which "are so near a large town that they serve all the purposes of a town residence, and so on the occasions of social functions, there is a very large amount of wheeled traffic in a short space of time, and by reserving one route for arrivals and the other for departing carriages, confusion is avoided. Such a domain is shown on the plan of Broad Oaks, Accrington, (No. 92). Here the approaches are treated in the informal manner which best lends itself to double drives on this scale, while in illustration No. 94, a more formal arrangement is shown. Having decided the principle on which the main approach to the residence is to be laid out, whether as an avenue or a formally or naturally treated drive, there are two details common to all forms of approach, the planning of which demands consideration. 78 FIG. 93. DRIVES, AVENUES, AND SERVICE ROADS. These are the junction of the drive or avenue with the public highway and the angle and position of the drive's termination at the carriage court. While the planning of the carriage court and the architectural accessories and furnishings of the are else- en trance treated of where, the subject of drive formation would be very in- complete without some reference to the general arrangement and planning of its terminations. For the entrance, most designers seem to favour an oblique junction, making the centre line of the drive run in the direction of a town, a railway station or other important place. Where, as in No. 93 there is a sufficient bend in the highway to justify this arrangement, it may be a success, but when the drive breaks away from a straight road, the effect is generally disappointing. An oblique junction is also very un- Oblique suitable where the drive and the highway entrances. approach one another at very different gradients. Suppose, for instance, that in illustration No. 95 the point B, which is forty-three yards from A, is also thirteen feet higher, and the gradient of the high- way between the points C and B is one in twenty, the cross fall of the ground would be so considerable as to make the entrance unsafe for carriages. Of course the ground at A, could be levelled up, but as this would have to be carried from the point of curvature of the wall to a point many yards inside the gateway, the cost would be heavy ; whereas, half the money spent on this unsatisfactory arrangement would have sufficed for an entrance at right angles to the main road, which would be quite as impressive in line, and safer, provided of course that the gates could be placed well back from the main road. The question of safety should, of course, always be para- mount, and in this connection the coming of the motor-car has effected many changes. Longer sweeps, a broader outlook and the avoidance of collision points are all necessary, while the extra wear and tear of tyres caused by turning at a very short radius also has its influence in determining the lines of FIG ()5 the entrance sweep. Whereas formerly entrance gates were set back from the roadway fifteen to thirty feet, nowadays, thirty to sixty feet, with wing walls in proportion, is considered necessary. Thus, entrances which, twenty years Safety. ---c 79 Junction of drive with carriage court. FIG. 96. DRIVES, AVENUES, AND SERVICE ROADS. ago, would have been considered extravagant or even ostentatious in their proportions, to-day only meet actual needs. Apart, however, from questions of safety and convenience, it is necessary, as has already been suggested, that the entrance, especially if near the residence, should be planned strictly in keeping with it, and, as a general rule, it- may be said that the nearer the entrance is to the house the more dignity it should possess. The relative importance of the various entrances to a large country seat should also be expressed in their design and arrangement, and it is equally necessary that there should be nothing to clash with beautiful natural scenery where this exists. As to the approach to the carriage court, whether the drive should terminate at its side, end or angle, depends partly upon the size and line of direction of the court and partly upon the architectural character and arrangement of the house, whether it is a perfectly balanced and sym- metrical structure or a picturesque, many gabled composition without any dominant axis on which to centre drive, carriage court and gate piers as a self-contained and complete entity. In any case, however, it is wrong to enter the court with such a sharp curve as to lose any comprehensive view of the residence from lack of the necessary perspective. Here are five examples of typical treatments from the writer's recent work. Illustration No. 99 shows the approach to a symmetri- cally planned dignified classical mansion, having a fine pillared portico on to which the avenue centres, the double line of trees being set back forty feet from the centre of the drive on either side, giving a clear width of eighty feet> thus allowing a clear view of the entrance facade. There is a second approach to the West which centres on to an arch leading to the garage, over the centre of which is a clock cupola. No. 96 shows the approach to a Scotch mansion which has an imposing entrance in the angle of the "L" shaped building. In this instance the court is enclosed within yew hedges, and the position of the entrance has given the opportunity for a somewhat unusual "arrangement of brick paving over a portion of its surface. No. 97 is the approach to the carriage court at Wood, South Tawton, in Devonshire, a view of which forms the subject of the end papers to this book. In this case there is a steep cross fall between the points A and B, on the sketch. No. 98 shows the approach to a type of residence which is happily as usual as it is delightful, one which has been built at various periods in the styles in vogue when FIG. 97. FIG. 80 DRIVES, AVENUES, AND SERVICE ROADS. each new addition was made and at all angles, resulting in a haphazard picturesqueness which resents any formal arrangement of drive or approach. No. 100 shows a double approach which enters a large court from opposite directions, each drive, for a distance of nearly a hundred yards, centering on the porte cochere ; while No. 101 shows an important variant of this arrangement. Having thus dealt with the various forms of drives and avenues and the treatment of their terminations, a few remarks on those methods of construction common to them all may be given. Materials vary very greatly in different parts of the country, and in all cases the best must be made of those available locally, for the cost of importing the one hundred tons or more of stone required for even a short drive would be quite prohibitive, though in extremely important cases, where the traffic will be very heavy, it might be advisable to obtain Mount Sorrel or Aberdeen granite for the sub-surface as the truest economy in the long run. Whatever the material however, the various processes of construction will be much the same. When the ground has been made up to the required levels and gradients by 'cutting through the higher parts and filling deep hollows and the " made " portions FIG. 99. FIG. IOO. FIG. IOI. have had time to consolidate, a layer of broken stone in large pieces, where possible from six to nine inches in diameter, is laid over the whole width. This is known as the " pitching," and there are two varieties, viz. : — rough pitching and hand pitching. The former is the more quickly done but absorbs the more material and consists of tilting the stuff out of carts on to the place it is to occupy, and going over it with a hammer and levelling down and breaking up any pieces which are much larger than the rest, when it is considered to be ready for the sub-surface material. In the latter method, each piece of pitching material is placed by hand, giving the unfinished drive the appear- ance of having been very roughly paved. Where material is plentiful, the former Materials. Pitching. 81 DRIVES, AVENUES, AND SERVICE ROADS. method will be best, but where it is expensive or difficult to obtain, the latter is the more economical, particularly as it allows of a saving in the subsequent operations. Peaty The success of the pitching depends almost entirely on getting a good firm bottom subsoils. on which to put it. In most districts this is easily obtained by removing a foot or so of turf, soil, fibrous matter, etc., from the site, but in others, where the ground is very wet and peaty, or where, as in many parts of Sussex, the subsoil is pure light sand, means must be taken to insure that it will not work up between the pitching and so destroy the work, as it otherwise would in the course of a few weeks, through the agency of wheeled traffic, if means were not taken to prevent this. In the case of a peaty subsoil, where this is only shallow, by far the cheapest method is to remove it entirely and fill up with dry, clean rubbish, adding a proper system of land drains, even though this may mean a rather heavy initial expense. Where the peat is too deep for this, it must be thoroughly drained, and both here and in the case of light sand, a layer of brushwood, broom, or other tough fibre, laid under the pitching, will keep everything in place, until time and the hammering of the traffic have together thoroughly consolidated the whole construction. In some districts, such as North Hertfordshire, pitching of any sort is dispensed with, and a layer of chalk substituted, but this is a material which needs very careful using, for in other districts where its physical properties are not quite the same, a sticky, putty-like substance would ooze up between the stones and ruin the whole. Brick bats and old building rubbish, if clean, make good pitching where stone is not available, and the writer has made good public park roads with a foundation of the broken crockery, etc., from the works in the Pottery Districts. It will thus be seen that in drive formation there is scope for much ingenuity combined with a knowledge of local conditions. The pitching having been laid, a solid foundation is formed on which to put the surface material of the drive. This is usually of two kinds, which may be described as the sub-surface material and the grouting. The former consists of stone broken to pass through a sieve with a two-inch mesh, and the latter is either finely-broken stone used to fill in between the sub-surface material and form a smooth surface, or it is material added to cement the whole together. Undoubtedly the best materials are those which make their own grout, that is to say those of a tough but not brittle consistency which, when rolled, make a cement-like detritus which itself acts as a grout. The best of these is the magnesian lime-stone so largely used throughout the Lake District, but all lime-stones are by no means so good. Some make the dustiest and muddiest roads in the kingdom. Such materials as granite or flints need an added grout, and probably the best in most cases is formed of road scrapings, while another often used is composed of garden loam. If the sub-surface material is formed from rounded stones from a watercourse or sea shore, they must each be broken at least once, even if this makes them rather too small, otherwise the whole will not bind together into a solid mass and horses' feet will be continually loosening rounded pieces of material. Where a drive is being made to lead to a new house, it is a good plan to make it up roughly before building operations commence, and then to insert a clause in the main contract, making the contractor responsible for its being left by him in as good a condition as he finds it. This means that all the heavy carting materials for the house will be done over it, and thus it will be thoroughly consolidated and any weak points will show themselves, and be filled in with building rubbish, often several times, until they are made good and solid. When the heavy carting is finished, a most exceptionally good sound foundation for the drive will remain, which will only need the surface repairing. Rolling. At every stage in its construction, the drive should be rolled with a fairly heavy roller, the weight of which will depend on the amount of pounding the material will stand, without either breaking up or being driven into the subsoil, and, in the case of a Sub-surface material. 82 DRIVES, AVENUES, AND SERVICE ROADS. drive to be used by motor traffic, it is particularly desirable that it should be finished with a light steam roller. All drives should be " crowned " or raised in the centre and sloped away at the sides in order to throw off rain water, which would otherwise soak into the surface and disintegrate it. Where the drive is hand pitched, by far the best way is to form the crown in the subsoil before commencing the pitching and to keep each layer of material the same thickness throughout, but where it is rough pitched this is not so important. A good general rule is to make the drive with a crown which raises the centre one inch for every two and a half feet of width from crown to side. Thus a drive twelve feet broad would round up to the centre nearly three inches, and one of eighteen feet nearly four inches. Here again, however, local conditions and the relative absorbency of the material used must be taken into consideration. For the sake of cyclists especi- ally, but also for other fast traffic, it is better that, where the drive curves, and especi- ally where the curve is sharp, the camber should be carried straight across the drive, making the inside of the curve the lower and the outside the higher point. This is particularly necessary where the drive curves to the right as one goes down-hill, where it would, of course, necessitate a special arrangement of the catchpits. While there are many drives in this country where to provide catchpits would be a waste of money, there are an infinitely greater number which are a perpetual annoyance to the estate workmen and a continual expense to the owner, all for the lack of a few well-placed drains to prevent heavy rains from scour- ing the surface. No hard-and-fast rules can be laid down for the plac- ing of these, but of course, the steeper the drive is, the more will be necessary. The grate should be twelve inches by eight inches with the bars curved to make it hollow towards the cen- tre and with a lip standing above the level of the frame at the lower «-- ^ end to check any tendency for the water to shoot right over it. The chamber under the grate may be built of dry bricks, i.e., without mortar or cement, and, to carry the water away, stoneware pipes are better than earthenware, except where laid exceptionally deep, as the latter are more apt to be broken by the traffic passing over. Where the drive is at all steep, they should have channels at the sides to withstand the wash of rapidly running storm water. Undoubtedly the most aesthetic method of providing these is by cobble paving, as in illustration No. 102, where this method would be in keeping with local characteristics, as in a district where flints abound, or where cobble paving is much used in the older building works, while in a brick district a channel constructed Crowning. CUT THROUGH SOLID ROCK. Catchpits . Width of drives. Cross levels. Fencing of steep banks DRIVES, AVENUES, AND SERVICE ROADS. of ordinary stock bricks looks as well as anything. Where the rush of water is likely to be at all great, either cobbles or brick should be laid in cement, and this is at all times the best method in the former material, as otherwise the numerous joints will grow a crop of weeds, which will involve many hours' labour in the Spring and early Summer. The widths of drives must again depend on many circumstances, and do not admit of solution by the application of preconceived dogmatic formulae, but in no case, except where the drive is a mere carriage sweep of a few feet long, should it be less than about twelve feet broad, while for drives over two hundred yards long which are likely to be used constantly, sixteen feet is the best width. It would seem almost unnecessary to state that the same width- should be carefully adhered to throughout the whole length of the drive unless under special circumstances, but observation shows how very few drives do this, giving the whole a ragged effect which no amount of care for the surface or verges can possibly remove. It has already been stated that the width of service roads should be carefully proportioned to that of the main drive. They may be any- thing from eight feet wide upwards, this being the narrowest roadway which will take an ordinary tradesman's cart. The whole effect of a well-planned drive may be ruined by neglect of the banks at its sides where there has been interference with the natural levels of the ground. The artistic management of cross levels demands greater attention than is usually bestowed upon it, and this is particularly so where, to insure an easy gradient, the drive follows a winding course through an undulating park, sometimes entailing a deep cutting and at others an equally deep filling, or where it encircles a hill with a cutting on the high side and a fill on the lower. In any of these cases there should be a level verge on either side of the drive at least two and a half feet broad with the bank beyond it arranged in reversed or " O.G." curves to connect with the natural levels (111. Nos. 103 and 104) . FIG. IO3. FIG. 104. The protection of drives where there are steep falling banks on one or both sides is often necessary, for horses sometimes become very nervous when passing along them for the first time. A simple horizontal bar about three feet three inches from the ground and supported at intervals of about ten feet by a stout post will provide all that is necessary to give an assurance of safety. The planting of the banks of drives and the treatment of their terminations, are referred to in another chapter. 84 o cr. w ft! CHAPTER VII. Very gratefully do the average mind and eye accept the steadying foreground stroke and clean-cut measuring line secured by the levelled areas and symmetrically planned walls or banks of a well-balanced terrace scheme, against which to measure the freer effects of foliage and the imaginative mellowness of distances. There are, of course, many capacious minds true to the characteristics of the rough- and-tumble Briton, whose ideal is absence of regularity, and who prefer that everything shall be spontaneous, fresh and warm from the fountain, with nothing in any sense of the word conventionalized. Whatever the personal preference however, it may be taken as an axiom that the immediate surroundings of an English home must, before all things, possess and express a spirit of restfulness, a quality which is generally secured most effectively by means of a more or less formal terrace scheme. Although some form of terrace is shown in connection with nearly all the gardens illustrated in this work, it is not intended to insist on this feature as a necessity. There are notable instances where there is no regular terrace scheme, but every landscape architect whose work has obtained recognition agrees that, in all but the most exceptional cases, to give a proper connection between the house and garden, a formal arrangement near the house is essential, and domestic architects who have undertaken the design of the garden have always made the terrace an important part of their scheme. A terrace is considered by most people as a raised platform, often a mere strip of walk some eight or ten feet wide, occupying the ground between the house and garden, the purpose of which is not very clear, as it can scarcely be considered as a part of the garden scheme and the residence apparently disowns it. It is not in this restricted sense that I propose to deal with its design and construc- tion, but rather as the whole plateau on which the house stands, together with the level enclosures referred to elsewhere as outdoor apartments, forming a part of the archi- tectural scheme. These, in many cases, include, in addition to the main terrace a series of flower gardens at varying levels, each portion so arranged as to be com- plementary to the others and the whole forming one comprehensive plan. The terrace scheme being in such close contact with the residence, and probably the most prominent feature in the more ornamental portion of the grounds, it is neces- sary that, in desiging a new garden, it should have consideration before other portions are dealt with. While the terrace cannot be divorced from them, but must be designed in relation to them, it will usually be found that, at the same time, its design very largely decides the main lines of the whole scheme so far as they are not already fixed by the contours and other natural features of the site. To what a great extent this is true will be at once evident on examining the accompanying plan of gardens at Angle- villiare, near Paris, designed by the Author (111. No. 107). Here vistas of paved walk, Restful effect of terraces. Terrace not always necessary. .Esthetic purpose of the terrace. Terraces dominate entire scheme. 87 TERRACES AND TERRACE GARDENS. flower garden, ornamental water and green glade all centre on and have their purpose in connection with the terrace scheme. The methods to be adopted in this important work have already been briefly indicated in Chapter III. As is there explained, the terrace being the centre round which the pleasure grounds or woodlands are arranged, attention would first be directed to discovering and framing those features visible from it which have in them the elements of the picturesque, or which in any way give character and individuality to the site. " Nothing," says Sedding, " is prettier than a vista through the smooth-shaven green alley or an archway framing a view of the country beyond," and it is for the creation of such effects that the designer must aim in the arrangement of his terraces and par- ticularly their steps and the placing of seats, arbours or bastions so as to emphasize them when created, at the same time taking care that the balance and symmetry of the scheme as a whole are not endangered in the treatment of individual features. Adapting The points of ' special interest having been noted we may proceed to arrange the terrace widths and levels of the various terrace plateaux on an axial section line such as that levels to fall described in Chapter III., and shown in illustration No. 12. The resulting areas having of ground. been pegged on to the ground, a " grid " of levels should be taken at points either ten, twenty-five or fifty feet apart over the whole of each of them and an average struck which will more accurately determine the finished level of each portion of the scheme. Where the filled-up portion of the terrace is supported by a retaining wall, the fact that the excavated material will occupy more space than it did before removal must be taken into account, but where grass slopes are formed where the level of the ground is raised, this will not be necessary as the amount of surplus material will be just about enough to make up the slopes. Termina- More terrace schemes fail through the lack of decisive and marked terminations lions of than from any other cause. While a bold and effective treatment may be given them terraces. in their relation to the main facade of the house, and the whole scheme is centralized by the planning and scale of symmetrically placed steps and bastions, the ends of the terrace are allowed to :' fade away " as it were into the less conventionally planned portions of the grounds. In many cases it has obviously been felt that all was not as it should be, and additional central features, such as heavy and over-elaborated flights of steps, are added so that the eye is drawn away from the weak extremities. Such palliatives are, of course, worse than useless, and nothing but full recognition of the fact that the strongly marked cross lines of the terrace balustrade and paths themselves form a vista, which must be appropriately closed at its termination, can supply a corrective. In the plan of the gardens just referred to (No. 10), the door to the kitchen garden would be so designed as to supply the necessary emphasis, and in other cases a small arbour, a boldly proportioned bastion, a seat with a little pentroof over it backed against the wall, or a circular seat like that shown in (No. 106), with a screen hedge behind, might be substituted. FIG. 106. — THE END OF THE BOWLING GREEN, FOOTS CRAY PLACE. 88 TERRACES AND TERRACE GARDENS. HOUSE w GARDENS FIG. 107. TERRACES AND TERRACE GARDENS. Widths of terraces. pies. Much space has been devoted by writers on garden design to the length and width of terrace gardens, but, as will be seen from what has been already said, this is a question which very largely decides itself. Except where a raised plateau is being specially made on an entirely flat site, on which to place the house, it will be governed by the contours considered in relation to the height which is desirable for the retaining walls. . For instance, if the average fall , _88-0-_ +_ »•,-_ I* m No. 108 is one in fifteen, and i ^H" ^aUte— *t ig decided that retaining walls can- ' *^r FIG. 108. n°t be made higher than will support a bank of earth four and a half feet high without appearing clumsy, the result will be as shown, and the proportions between the widths of the two terraces will also be fixed between very narrow limits, for moving the upper terrace wall would immediately throw the finished level too high or too low in relation to the floor level of the house. The broader the terraces on a given slope the higher the terrace walls, and so it becomes a question of so adjusting the breadths as to guard against crampedness on the one hand and repellent-looking engineering feats in the walls and their steps which may look too much like fortifications if too deep and heavy. In those exceptional cases, however, where the conditions allow a choice of widths, the terrace next to a mansion of average height and frontage should not be less than twenty-five feet wide, while for the lower terraces, one hundred and twenty feet by sixty feet, or larger in the same proportions, will generally be found suitable. Only by adapting the terraces to the natural levels of the ground can we secure that restfulness and harmony between the home and the landscape which are so desirable, and obtain harmonious composition whether they are viewed from the mansion or sur- :ounding gardens. Any attempt to act independently of the contours will result in giving the whole an air of artificiality which will be instinctively felt by the beholder without his being able exactly to account for it. r CKIM4LEMIKE FIG. 109. The importance of fitting the house and garden to the natural contours of the ground is shown on illustration No. 10. Here each of the four garden levels can be seen from the window of the great hall, while on the North side the kitchen garden is hidden, with the exception of the central walk, between the herbaceous borders. On this site the cross fall is fairly even, but in the greater number of cases the falls or rises are at varying angles and gradients on each side of the house. 90 TERRACES AND TERRACE GARDENS. In some cases the terraces may even rise from the house on one side while they fall on another, as at Blicking Hall and Tissington and partly at Haddon Hall, or as at Graythwaite Hall (No. 399), and again at Wood, in North Devonshire (No. 409). Everything depends on the natural fall of the ground. Although terraces are usually level, circumstances may sometimes arise which will Terraces allow them to follow to a limited extent the slope of a steep hill, as in the hillside with « cross garden designed for Henry Martin, Esq., of Windermere (111. Nos. 109 and no). Again, on very steep hillsides, or where the whole face of the country for a mile or more in each direction slopes all one way, a terrace finished to a true level would appear to dip into the ground on the side which originally was highest, to rectify which it may be necessary to give the surface a slight cross fall of, say, one foot in fifty in the direction of the slope of the hill- side on which it stands. In fact, there are few terraces, even where the ground below them slopes only slightly, which would not be improved by a drop of a few inches from the side nearest the house to the retaining wall. As, however, the greater part of the filled-up portion is on the side farthest from the house, this is a matter which usually takes care of itself, for after the ground has been made as solid as possible and paved or gravelled to a truly level surface a little settlement in the filled portions is sure to take place. Nevertheless, every effort should br made to get the ground solid before finishing the surface, or the settlement may be excessive. In some districts this is best done by watering with a hose, but in most materials, ramming must be resorted to. Even after thoroughly ramming or watering, or both, time must be allowed to elapse before the surface is made up, and some settlement may go on for twelve months or more where the filling is deep or the material contains much fibrous or other organic matter. The various levels of a terrace scheme having been decided upon it becomes neces- sary to consider the treatment of the lines of division between one level and another. FIG. 110. — TERRACED EFFECT ON A STEEP HILLSIDE. TERRACES AND TERRACE GARDENS. Grass banks or walls. jo- a' — FIG. III. Treatment of terrace walls There are numerous ways of doing this, but either walls or grass banks are the ones usually adopted. Grass banks have the advantage as regards first cost, but, on the other hand, there is the constant cost of upkeep to be considered, which may make the wall really cheaper in the end. Where grass banks are adopted, they should slope at an angle which will give a rise of one foot in every two feet of horizontal breadth. Not only is this a most convenient slope to fit steps to, but a steeper bank is very apt to " burn " in hot weather, that is to say, it is so naturally dry that the grass is scorched and deadened. On the other hand, a natter bank is apt to give a very un- decided line of demarcation between the levels it separates. ^Esthetic considerations are usually all in favour of a wall. Not only is a flower bed difficult to arrange satisfactorily at the foot of a slope, but the bank will usually remain a bare expanse of shaven grass and therefore not be sufficiently differentiated from the lawns above and below, whereas the wall would very soon be garnished with a mass of roses and other free-flowering climbers. Where the difference of level between the two terraces is unusual in either way, a wall is again indicated, for very deep banks are difficult to mow and very shallow ones are ineffective. Quite a terraced effect can be got with a difference of level of as little as one foot, if supported by a dwarf wall with the coping standing about six inches above the higher ground level, but with a grass bank such a slight rise would usually be almost entirely lost. Such a wall may be seen on the plan of a garden at Berkhamstead, shown in illustration No. 385. In many cases, again, the amount of ground occupied by a bank is a consideration. If a wall is sub- stituted it can be saved for a broad border at its foot (see 111. No. in). Most garden lovers prefer a wall over- grown with climbers, yet are deterred from erecting one, fearful of incurring the cost of such a feature, and therefore adopt a slope laid down with grass, or planted either in an informal manner or with a variety of shrubs. The cost of a wall, however, depends entirely on its elaboration and enrichment. If the architectural character of the house demands in its immediate vicinity a pierced or balustraded finish, which of itself may cost twenty shillings per foot run or even more for the pierced work only, the outlay, for an extent of wall so erected, would, of course, be heavy, but there are comparatively few occasions on which such elaboration would be in keeping with the architecture. Where they are not discordant with the scale and effect of the house, terrace walls of simple design, built in local material, may often answer all purposes more effectively than elaborate erections, and, when covered with hardy climbers, look equally interesting, FIG. 112. TERRACES AND TERRACE GARDENS. o W