The Golden State: Where & How to Live, Secure, Visit, Enjoy and Thrive in California

Landscape Gardening

Entrances, Drives And Walks

An approach which does not evidently lead to the house, or which does not take the shortest course, cannot be right.
Humphrey Repton.
For an approach to he good there must he an easy turn-in from the high road; the grade within the gate must be as uniform and as gentle as possible; there must be no sharp turns; . . . the house must be well displayed to advancing eyes; and the line of gravel must not so intersect the ground as to interfere with a beautiful arrangement of its parts, or to be itself a disagreeable object when seen from the house.
Mrs. Van Rensselaer.
The great circle of the approach lies beneath the sweeping
grasses;
Step lightly down these terraces, they are records of a dream.
Amy Lowell.
The orator takes great pains that his exordium shall be at once a fitting introduction to his oration and calculated to win the favor of his audience. The composer of an opera gives special care to his overture, endeavoring to introduce the best themes of the subsequent score, and to make an agreeable impression on his hearers. In the same way, when a landscape gardener plans a considerable picture he tries to arrange it so that the approaching visitor shall get not only a prejudice in its favor, but also a fair suggestion of its character.

Among farmers who try to arrange their homes tastefully, and among people who have summer residences in the country, the importance of an appropriate approach is quite generally felt. In some other lines of work,—park-making, for example, —it is sometimes underestimated.

When the grounds are of any considerable size there ought to be an adequate and more or less defined entrance area. The entrance is of some importance in itself, and other items in its immediate neighborhood may best be made subordinate to it. Usually this area will be more or less enlarged by being recessed from the outside. This emphasizes the entrance, makes it seem more inviting, gives room for a carriage turn, etc. Usually there will be a gateway of some sort; and if the vicinity, outside or inside, is full of buildings, the design of the entrance will probably be architectural in its main features. There is such an infinite variety of architectural ideas to be worked out for such places that no general suggestions can be made.

For country places, where the entrance is made among purely natural surroundings, considerably less of architectural effect is permissible. Some very simple, substantial stone work is usually best. Gardeners of an earlier day, often affected "rustic" work— poles with the bark on—for such places; and though these sometimes give a satisfactory result they are much less in vogue at the present.