The Golden State: Where & How to Live, Secure, Visit, Enjoy and Thrive in California
Art Of Landscape Architecture
The ideal line for a road to approach the house is in one single sweep, but the limitations of trees and shrubs, convenience, and the opening out to view other scenes which present themselves often prevent this. On the same principle the road should approach the house on the least attractive side, that of the outbuildings and farming territory, leaving the secluded and most beautiful outlook in front of the living-rooms of the house, the dining-room, and library. All things being equal, the drive should reach the house on the side where the flower garden and vegetable garden are situated, and give an undisturbed pastoral effect to the lawn on the far side.
The illustration "The Trosachs" shows why a road winding away from the eye through park or wild woodland gives so much pleasure. The eye loses the drive around a graceful curve and as one moves along bits of road and scenery keep opening ahead and one wonders what is coming next. Change and surprise form important elements of pleasure in landscape gardening.
If conditions, however, force or strongly suggest the use of a straight road, there is no rule of good taste that should prevent its employment. The trees along its borders should be of a character and size that will give it dignity, but at the same time there should be a diversity of the grading or topography of the lawn nearby, and above all a pleasing variety of shrubs between a number, though not necessarily all, of the trees. To leave open spaces at intervals, provided the views there are attractive, would be an advantage.
The illustration shown of the straightaway road on the east of Central Park indicates how such an arrangement can be made agreeable in cramped and uninteresting conditions, and the same rule applies to paths or walks. Curving paths are the most agreeable to the eye, but if the dignity or exigencies of the place require it, there is no reason why the straight ones should not be used. It is well to remember that to make a straight path among curved ones may seriously disturb the harmony of the entire scene, but the straight path in the illustration of Lovers' Lane in Central Park shows that the scene can be so diversified by planting as to prevent the formality from marring the beauty of the scene.
