Gravel walk

“ Loose and rattling gravel makes a handsome walk to look at, but an unpleasant one to walk upon. Nothing is more agreeable than well-trodden, dry, root-bound earth, as where grass has been worn away by frequent use ”

“ Q. Why is a gravel walk almost dry, when a grass plat is covered thick with dew?
A. Grass, (being a good radiator) throws off its heat very freely; but gravel (being a very bad radiator) parts with its heat very reluctantly.
Q. Is that the reason why grass is saturated with dew, and the gravel is not?
A. Yes. When the vapour of warm air comes in contact with the cold grass, it is instantly chilled into dew; but (as the gravel is not so cold as the grass) the vapour of air is not so freely condensed as it passes over the gravel.
Q. Why does dew rarely fall upon hard rocks and barren lands? ”

“ Numberless are the scenes of similar beauty which are to be found throughout England. To the left of the lawn, well-kept gravel walks twisted and twined away through shrubberies of evergreens, passing several open spaces filled with flower beds and trellised arbours, and rock-work and grottoes, and other similar conceits, made with very good taste though, till they reached two wide sheets of water, which might well be called lakes, connected by a serpentine channel crossed at each end by a rustic bridge. ”

“ This is done both to give solidity to the walk, and to prevent the gravel from being wasted by trickling down between the interstices of the stones. As walks can never be firm unless they are kept quite dry, in all cases there should be at least one drain to each walk. The gravel before laying down should be sifted, and all stones, larger than a moderate-sized gooseberry, should be thrown out or broken ”

“ The walks in general should be put in the neatest order during this month. Little requires to be added to the observations of last month, but if these have not been executed, fail not to have it done the first opportunity, choosing dry weather for the operation of turning the old or adding new gravel to them, levelling, raking, and rolling neatly as you proceed. Always after rain give the whole of the gravel walks a good rolling. ”

“ In the same manner, and on the same principle, so soon as the fine weather sets in, and the front-gardens begin to look gay, the graveller loads his cart with gravel, and shouldering his spade, crawls leisurely through the suburbs with his companion, peering into every garden; and wherever he sees that the walks are grown dingy or moss-grown, he knocks boldly at the door, and demands to be set to work in mending your ways. ”

“ Unquestionably, walks near the house should be graveled; they naturally have too [175] hard usage to keep turf in good condition. Graveled walks should be dug out a foot or more in depth, filled in with broken stone, this covered well with coarse gravel, and finished with a coating of a couple of inches of whatever fine gravel is chosen. ”

“ It was gravel that moved underfoot with never-failing treachery, gravel made hot by the rays of the sun, and flinging up a scorching heat while it crawled and blistered underfoot. On midsummer days men had perished here, driven mad by the dancing of the air and the dread of the movement where they trod. ”

“ During the wet season a single rain may fill the gorges, sheet the mountain slopes with water, tear great trees from their hold, break off mighty rock fragments and carry them onward, like wooden blocks, with hundreds of tons of finer gravel. ”

“ Where the solid rock has been reached, it has been cut into deep and narrow gorges. Still higher up the valleys, the terraces gradually become more and more broken, narrower, and less thick, until, at a height of from seven to nine thousand feet, they become lost, and blended with the piles of fallen detritus.
I carefully examined in many places the state of the gravel, and almost everywhere found the pebbles equally and perfectly rounded, occasionally with great blocks of rock, and generally distinctly stratified, often with parting seams of sand. ”

“ Along the whole road he has raised a footpath, beautifully gravelled. Oh! how I wish our walks had one inch off the surface of this footpath, or that the African magician, or the English equally potent magician of steam, could convey to my mother's elbow in the Dingle one yard of one bank of the gravel which here wastes its pebbles on the mountain side! ”

“ To what particular practice do you allude, when you inform the Committee that gravel is unskilfully applied to the roads in general?—I see that on gravel roads, the gravel is put on after being very imperfectly sifted, and the huge pieces not being broken, and the gravel is laid on the middle of the road and allowed to find its own may to the sides. ”

“ In the worst places the guides point out to the traveller where to plant his feet and hold him up if he begins to slip. Shrubs, tough grass, and here and there a stunted pine-tree give a welcome hold, but on the steepest slopes they are wanting. The last slope up to the foot of the cliff—a very long and steep declivity of loose gravel which gives way at every step—is most fatiguing. As I was struggling slowly up it with the guides, we heard the furious barking of dogs away up the mountains on the opposite side of the glen. ”

“ In connection with the building and maintenance of gravel roads the most important matter to consider is that of selecting the proper material. A small proportion of argillaceous sand, clayey, or earthy matter contained in some gravel enables it to pack readily and consolidate under traffic or the road roller. Seaside and river gravel, which is composed usually of rounded, waterworn pebbles, is unfit for surfacing roads. ”

“ There are other cases besides that of gravel, in which I should think it unprofitable to lift a road. The road between —— and —— is made of very soft stone, and is of so brittle a nature, that if it were lifted it would rise in sand, and there would be nothing to lay down again that would be useful. ”

“ The Ideal Road Gravel.—The ideal road gravel is a mixture of pebbles, sand and earthy material, the pieces varying from coarse to fine in such a manner that when the gravel is compacted into a road surface the spaces [Pg 81] between the larger pebbles are filled with the finer material. The pebbles are of a variety of rock that is highly resistant to wear so that the road surface made from the gravel will have the quality of durability. The gravel possesses good cementing properties, insuring that the pieces will hold together in the road surface. ”

“ I learn more, studying over and over again the same Bagshot sand and gravel heaps, than I should by roaming all Europe in search of new geologic wonders. Fifteen years have I been puzzling at the same questions and have only guessed at a few of the answers. What sawed out the edges of the moors into long narrow banks of gravel? What cut them off all flat atop? What makes Erica Tetralix grow in one soil, and the bracken in another? How did three species of Club-moss—one of them quite an Alpine one—get down here, all the way from Wales perhaps, upon this isolated patch of gravel? ”

“ From this tunnel vertical holes, or ‘jump-ups,’ are made upwards into the soft gravels, which are then taken out in blocks. As these are removed the roof is allowed to fall in. On the surface the gravel is put into a circular iron tank or buddle in which there are revolving forks. Here it is washed with water, and the big stones thrown away. The clear gravel is then drawn off into long troughs or sluices, down which water is flowing. On the bottom of the trough there are small ledges of wood or iron, behind which the gold collects, while the lighter gravel is washed away. ”

“ Where gravel is the material to complete the road with, I have already mentioned, that it ought to be completely cleansed of every particle of clay or earthy substance, and its different sizes ought to be selected and arranged by means of riddling or washing; in the use of the riddle, the particles of earth or clay adhere so much to the stones that it frequently requires to be exposed to the sun, air, and frost, for several months, and then riddled over again. ”

“ They called Anthea 'Panther', which seems silly when you read it, but when you say it it sounds a little like her name.
The gravel-pit is very large and wide, with grass growing round the edges at the top, and dry stringy wildflowers, purple and yellow. It is like a giant's wash-hand basin. And there are mounds of gravel, and holes in the sides of the basin where gravel has been taken out, and high up in the steep sides there are the little holes that are the little front doors of the little sand-martins' little houses. ”

“ Brett and I left you and traversed the watercourse, both up and down. We found a footprint at the top, left lately by a man with a broken shoe. Right down to the bottom of the watercourse where it emerged from the wood there was no sign on either side of this man having left the gravel. (Where the body was, as you will remember, he would simply have stepped off the gravel on to the grass, which I thought it useless to examine, as I have explained.) But at the bottom, by the lane, the footprint appeared again. ”

“ As soon as the particles are fairly out of the reach of the water they are dried by the heat of the burning sun, and immediately seized by the wind and rolled or borne farther inland. The gravel is not thrown out by the waves, but rolls backwards and forwards until it is worn down to the state of fine sand, when it, in its turn, is cast upon the land and taken up by the wind. ”

“ So I let them go on; but the next day when I went out again I found that they had come to the conclusion that it was time to give up digging in that hole. They both declared that it almost froze their feet to stand on the ground where they worked at the bottom of the excavation. The slow business of drawing up the gravel by means of a bucket and windlass was, therefore, reluctantly given up. ”

“ Ugly gravel heaps, staring mounds of 'pipe-clay,' deposits of sludge, a surface filled with holes, broken windlasses, the wrecks of whims, all combine to make a hideous picture as they stand revealed in the pitiless sunshine. ”

“ These gravels are constantly in movement, being urged forward by the shore currents especially during storms. Large banks of gravel may be swept away in a single night, and in this way the coast is laid bare to the erosive action of the sea. Moreover, the movement of the gravel itself wears down the subjacent rocks. Hence in many places barriers have been erected to prevent the drift of the pebbles and preserve the land, while often it has been found necessary to protect the shores by masonry or cement work. ”

“ The system of a platform of poles, hurdles, or fascine-work is well known, and has been proved to be effectual in preventing any dangerous lateral or vertical movement. Sand, fine gravel, ashes, or other binding material, spread over the surface of peat consolidates it and assists in preventing movement, and it is well if such a covering extends for some distance in front and at the sides of an embankment to keep the ground from rising. ”

“ Through the center, where the lower disc of the open circles touched the ground, ran a deep bed of coarse gravel, covered with a thick layer of smooth round pebbles, forming a perfectly drained pathway about three feet in width which extended uniformly from one end of the archway to the other. Conforming to the contour of the arches, rising and receding in unison, this pathway was bordered on either side by what appeared to be a continuous terrace of three stone benches, each one foot high and of the same width. ”

“ Judging from the section given by Sir Joseph Prestwich, [36] the highest point which the gravel attains is about 59 feet above the river, and its surface in the pit, where the implements are found, is 40 feet above it. The gravel rests upon the Cornbrash, or upper member of the Lower Oolite; but the valley itself, though partly in the limestone rock, has been cut through a considerable thickness of Oxford Clay and of Boulder Clay, which here overlies it. The gravel consists of subangular stones in an ochreous matrix, interspersed with irregular seams of sand and clay. ”

“ Your garden areas are so limited that they should be re-spaded each season, and the grass paths are a great bother in this work. Of course, a gravel path makes a fine appearance, but again you may not have gravel at your command. It is possible for any of you to dig out the path for two feet. Then put in six inches of stone or clinker. Over this, pack in the dirt, rounding it slightly toward the centre of the path. There should never be depressions through the central part of paths, since these form convenient places for water to stand. The under layer of stone makes a natural drainage system. ”

“ And of all conceivable anachronisms, what brings a nineteenth-century steam-roller into these fifteenth-century streets, where the paving-stones are still brought in from the quarries on men's backs, and the gravel carried from the pits in sacks on men's shoulders? ”

“ It is difficult to stand, and at length becomes impossible to do so. People fling themselves to the ground to avoid being dashed against it. The trees are seen to sway violently, sometimes so much that they touch the ground with their branches.... As the waves rush past the ground opens in cracks and closes again. As the cracks close the squeezed-out air blows out sand and gravel, and sometimes sand and water are spurted high in air. ”

“ Gradually the trail grew steeper, in spots pitched almost at a 50-degree angle, and was scattered with gravel, loose rock and shale, so that we placed our feet carefully, leaning forward to catch at handholds and steady ourselves against rocks. ”