250 



HOW TO CHOOSE A SITE FOR A COUNTRY SEAT. 



ing wood, and where the ground is so dis- 

 posed as to offer a natural surface for a fine 

 lawn. These two points secured, half the 

 battle is fought, for the framework or back- 

 ground of foliage being read)'' grown, im- 

 mediate shelter, shade, and effect is given 

 as soon as the house is erected ; and a sur- 

 face well shaped for a lawn, (or one which 

 requires but trifling alterations,) once ob- 

 tained, all the labor and cost of grading is 

 avoided, and a single season's thorough pre- 

 paration gives you velvet to walk about 

 upon. 



Some of our readers, no doubt, will say 

 this is excellent advice, but unfortunately 

 not easily followed. So many are forced 

 to build on a bare site, and " begin at the 

 beginning." 



This is no doubt occasionally true, but in 

 nine cases out of ten, in this country, our 

 own observation has convinced us that the 

 choice of a poor location is the result of lo- 

 cal prejudice, or want of knowledge of the 

 subject, rather than of necessity. 



How frequently do we see men paying 

 larg^ prices for indifferent sites, when at a 

 distance of half a mile there are one or 

 more positions on which nature has lavished 

 treasures of wood and water, and spread out 

 undulating surfaces, which seem absolutely 

 to court the finishing touches of the rural ar- 

 tist. Place a dwelling in such a site, and 

 it appropriates all nature's handiwork to it- 

 self in a moment. The masses of trees 

 are easily broken into groups that have im- 

 mediately the effect of old plantations, and 

 all the minor details of shrubbery, walks, 

 and flower and fruit gardens, fall gracefully 

 and becomingly into their proper positions. 

 Sheltered and screened, and brought into 

 harmony with the landscape, these finishing 

 touches serve in turn to enhance the beauty 

 and value of the original trees themselves. 

 We by no means wish to deter those who 



have an abundance of means, taste, enthu- 

 siasm and patience, from undertaking the 

 creation of entire new scenery in their 

 country residences. There are few sources 

 of satisfaction more genuine and lasting 

 than that of walking through extensive 

 groves and plantations, all reared by one's 

 own hands — to look on a landscape which 

 one has transformed into leafy hills and 

 wood embowered slopes. We scarcely 

 remember more real delight evinced by any 

 youthful devotee of our favorite art, in all 

 the fervor of his first enthusiasm, than has 

 been expressed to us by one of our venera- 

 ble Ex-Presidents, now in a ripe old age, 

 when showing us, at various times, fine old 

 forest trees, oaks, hickories, etc., which 

 have been watched by him in their entire 

 cycle of development, from the naked seeds 

 deposited in the soil by his own hands, to 

 their now furrowed trunks and umbrageous 

 heads ! 



But it must be confessed, that it is throw- 

 ing away a large part of one's life — and 

 that too, more especially, when the cup of 

 country pleasures is not brought to the lips 

 till one's meridian is well nigh past — to 

 take the whole business of making a land- 

 scape from the invisible carbon and oxygen 

 waiting in soil and atmosphere, to be turned 

 by the slow alchemy of ten or twenty sum- 

 mers' growth into groves of weeping elms, 

 and groups of overshadowing-oaks ! 



Those, therefore, who wish to start with 

 the advantage of a good patrimony from 

 nature, will prefer to examine what mother 

 Earth has to ofter them in her choicest nooks, 

 before they determine on taking hold of 

 some meagre scene, where the woodman's 

 axe and the ploughman's furrow have long 

 ago obliterated all the original beauty of 

 the landscape. If a place cannot be found 

 well wooded, perhaps a fringe of wood or 

 a background of forest foliage can be taken 



