The Walks are so laid out and planted as to be sheltered or bordered by evergreens, for the sake of their lively appearance during winter. They are also so contrived as to be shaded from the sun by deciduous trees during summer; while these trees, being naked during winter, admit the sun at that season to dry the ground. The walks are laid out in different directions, in order that, from whatever point the wind may blow, at least one walk will be sheltered from it. The greater number are in the direction of north and south; because walks in that direction are best exposed to the sun in the winter season, which is the period of the year in which the proprietor chiefly resides here. It is always desirable, in a small place, that all the walks should be concealed from the windows, except that immediately under the eye; and that, in walking through the grounds, no path should be seen except the one walked on, and that (except in the case of a straight avenue) only for a moderate distance. These rules (derived from the principle of variety and intricacy) have been carefully attended to by Mr. Harrison; and hence the walk from a to b, in the plan fig. 165. in p. 656, 657., is concealed by raising the turf on the side next the house higher than on the opposite side; while that from c to d is concealed by the bushes and trees at e, and more especially by a large rhododendron at ee. The walk f g h is concealed from the walk i; partly by a swell in the surface of the turf on the side next i, but chiefly by the bushes which are scattered along its margin. At g, there is a clump which prevents any one on the walk i from seeing the line g f; and any one on the walk g f from seeing the line i. In walking along from f to h, it is clear that the trees and shrubs on the left hand will always prevent the eye from seeing the walk to any great distance. All the other walks through the lawn are concealed in a similar manner; so that a person walking in the grounds never sees any other walk than that which lies immediately before him; and, therefore, in looking across the lawn, he never can discover the extent either of what he has seen, or of what he has yet to see. To form a great number of walks of this sort, and lead the spectator over them without showing him more than one walk at a time, but taking care, at the same time, to let him have frequent and extensive views across the lawn, and these views always different, constitute the grand secret of making a small place look large. The walks are filled to the brim with gravel, kept firmly rolled, and their grass margins are clipt, but never cut; because the gravel, being almost as high as the turf, the latter can never sink down, and swell out over the former. This it invariably does when the turf is a few inches higher than the gravel; and, hence, paring off the part of the turf which had projected was originally, no doubt, adopted only as a remedy for the evil, though it is now erroneously practised by gardeners as an evidence of care and good keeping. As much of the beauty of the walk depends upon the beauty of its boundary, the feeling that this boundary is likely to be disturbed every time the walk is cleaned, or the adjoining turf mown, is extremely disagreeable. The freshly pared turf becomes a spot or a scar in the scene, withdrawing the attention from the walk itself, and from the adjoining grounds, to a point, or rather a line, which is in itself of little consequence, but which, by the paring, is obtruded on the eye, so as to destroy all allusion to stability. We are displeased with the paring of the edges, because it conveys the idea that the walks are not finished, or that they are liable to be disturbed in this way from time to time; and nothing, either in grounds or in buildings, is more unsatisfactory than an apparent want of stability or fixedness. It is as much the nature of the ground to be fixed and immovable, as it is of trees and shrubs to increase in growth; and, hence, any operation, such as clipping, which seems to stop the growth of the one, is as unsatisfactory to the eye as paring, which seems to derange the fixed state of the other. Would that we could impress this on the minds of all gardeners and their employers !
