Victorian Women Required Gravel Walks

Victorian women required gravel walks.

Gravel walkways have long been a tradition for the English garden. Some argue that the English perfected the gravel pathway which included designing, installing, and maintaining it throughout the year.

Gravel walkways in the Victorian garden were necessary because women would not walk on the grass.

In her book The Victorian Flower Garden Jennifer Davis wrote, “Gravel walks were thought necessary in Victorian days for [as one manual of the era points out] tender and delicate ladies ‘who will not set the sole of their feet upon grass.’ “

McMahon borrowed most of the content of his book from English garden writers so his advice follows the English tradition of gravel walks.

He ends his discussion of walks with these words, “It is a general rule among neat gardeners, who are allowed sufficient help, to roll and sweep the gravel walks every Saturday.”

According to nineteenth century Rochester,New York seedsman James Vick, the English used arsenic to keep down the weeds on a gravel walk.

That also helped of course to prevent Victorian women from tripping on any weeds as they walked the gravel path.

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