HOW TO CHOOSE A SITE FOR A COUNTRY SEAT. 



251 



ndvantage of. These will give shelter, and 

 serve as a groundwork to help on the ef- 

 fects of the ornamental planter. We have 

 seen a cottage or villa site dignified, and 

 rendered attractive forever, by the posses- 

 sion of even three or four fine trees of the 

 original growth, judiciously preserved, and 

 taken as the nucleus of a whole series of 

 belts and minor plantations. 



There is another most striking advantage 

 in the possession of considerable wooded 

 surface, properly located, in a country resi- 

 dence. This is the seclusion and privacy 

 of the walks or drives, which such bits of 

 woodland afford. Walks, in open lawn, or 

 even amid belts of shrubbery, are never 

 felt to have that seclusion and comparative 

 solitude which belong to the wilder aspect 

 of woodland scenes. And no contrast is 

 more agreeable than that from the open 

 sunny brightness of the lawn and pleasure 

 grounds, to the retirement and quiet of a 

 woodland walk. 



Again, it is no small matter of considera- 

 tion to many persons settling in the country, 

 the production of picturesque effect, the 

 working out a realm of beauty of their own, 

 without any serious inroads into their in- 

 comes. One's private walks and parterres, 

 unluckil}', cannot be had at the cost of one's 

 daily bread and butter — though the Beauti- 

 ful overtops the useful, as stars outshine far- 

 thing candles. But the difference of cost 

 between keeping up a long series of walks, 

 in a place mainly composed of flower garden, 

 shrubbery and pleasure grounds, compared 

 with another, where there are merely lawns 

 and sylvan scenery, is like that between 

 maintaining a chancery suit, or keeping on 

 pleasant terms with your best friend or fa- 

 vorite country neighbor. Open walks must 

 be scrupulously neat, and broad sunshine 

 and rich soil make weeds grow, faster than 

 a new city in the best " western diggins," 



and your gardener has no sooner put the 

 series of walks in perfect order, than he 

 looks over his shoulder, and beholds the 

 enemy is there, to be conquered over again. 

 On the other hand, woodland walks are 

 swept and repaired in the spring, and like 

 some of those gifted individuals, " born 

 neat,"' they require no more attention than 

 the rainbow, to remain fresh and bright till 

 the autumn leaves begin to drop again. 



Our citizen reader, therefore, who wishes 

 to enjoy his country seat as an elegant syl- 

 van retreat, with the greatest amount of 

 beauty and enjoyment, and the smallest 

 care and expenditure, will choose a place 

 naturally well wooded, or where open 

 glades, and bits of lawn, alternate with 

 masses or groups, and, it may be, with 

 extensive tracts of well grown wood. A 

 house once erected on such a site, the whole 

 can very easilj' be turned into a charming 

 labyrinth of beautiful and secluded drives 

 and walks. And as our improver cultivates 

 his eye and his taste, nature will certainly 

 give him fresh hints ; she will tell him how 

 by opening a glade here, and piercing a thick- 

 et there, by making underwood occasional- 

 ly give place to soft turf, so as to show fine 

 trunks to the greatest advantage, and there- 

 by bringing into more complete contrast some 

 wilder and more picturesque dell, all the na- 

 tural charms of a place may be heightened 

 into a beauty far more impressive and signi- 

 ficant than they originally possessed. 



Why man's perception of the Beautiful 

 seems clouded over in most uncultivated 

 natures, and is only brought out by a cer- 

 tain process of refining and mental culture, 

 as the lapidary brings out, by polishing, all 

 the rich play of colours in a stone that one 

 passes by as a common pebble, we leave to 

 the metaphysicians to explain. Certain it 

 is, that we see, occasionally, lamentable 

 proofs of the fact in the treatment of na- 



