394 



HOW TO ARRANGE COUNTRY PLACES. 



place. But, indeed, it is the very starting 

 point and fundamental substratum on which 

 the whole thing rests. There can be no 

 complete country place, however large or 

 small, in which the greatest possible amount 

 of privacy and seclusion is not attained 

 within its grounds, especially within that 

 part intended for the enjoyment of the 

 family. Now it is very clear that there 

 can be no seclusion where there is no sepa- 

 ration of uses, no shelter, no portions set 

 apart for especial purposes, both of utility 

 and enjoyment. First of all, then, in plan- 

 ning a country place, the house should be 

 so located that there shall be at least two 

 sides ; an entrance side, which belongs to 

 the living, or best apartments of the house ; 

 and a kitchen side, (or " blind side,'''') com- 

 plete in itself, and more or less shut out 

 from all observation from the remaining 

 portions of the place. 



This is as indispensable for the comfort 

 of the inmates of the kitchen as those of 

 the parlor. By shutting off completely one 

 side of the house by belts or plantations of 

 trees and shrubbery from the rest, you are 

 enabled to make that part more extensive 

 and complete in itself. The kitchen yard, 

 the clothes-drying ground, the dairy, and 

 all the structures which are so practically 

 important in a country house, have abun- 

 dant room and space, and the domestics can 

 perform their appointed labors with ease 

 and freedom, without disturbing the differ- 

 ent aspect of any other portion of the 

 grounds. There are few new sites where 

 there is not naturally a "blind side" indi- 

 cated ; a side where there is a fringe of 

 wood, or some natural disposition of sur- 

 face, which points it out as the spot where 

 the kitchen offices should be placed, in 

 order to have the utmost shelter and priva- 

 cy, — at the same time leaving the finer 

 glades, openings, and views, for the more 



refined, social and beautiful portions of the 

 residence. Wherever these indications are 

 wanting, they must be created, by artificial 

 planting of belts, and groups of trees and 

 shrubs, — not in stiff and formal lines like 

 fences, but in an irregular and naturally 

 varied manner, so as to appear as if formed 

 of a natural copse, or, rather, so as not to 

 attract special attention at all. 



We are induced to insist upon this point 

 the more strenuously, because, along with 

 the taste for the architecture of Pericles, 

 (may we indulge the hope that he is not 

 permitted to behold the Greek architecture 

 of the new world !) which came into fash- 

 ion in this country fifteen or twenty years 

 ago, came also the fashion of sweeping 

 away everything that was not temple-like 

 about the house. Far from recognizing 

 that man lives a domestic life, — that he 

 cooks, washes, bakes and churns in his 

 country house, and, therefore, that kitchen 

 offices, (tastefully concealed if you please, 

 but still ample,) are a necessary, and there- 

 fore truthful part of his dwelling, — they went 

 upon the principle that if man had fallen, and 

 was no longer one of the gods, he might still 

 live in a temple dedicated to the immortals. 

 A clear space on all sides — pediments at 

 each end, and perhaps a colonnade all 

 round ; this is the undomestic, uncomforta- 

 ble ideal of half the better country houses 

 in America. 



Having fixed upon and arranged the 

 blind side of the house — which, of course, 

 will naturally be placed so as to connect 

 itself directly with the stable and other out- 

 buildings, — the next point of attack is the 

 kitchen garden. This is not so easily dis- 

 posed of as many imagine. All persons of 

 good taste agree that however necessary, 

 satisfactory, and pleasant a thing a good 

 kitchen garden is, it is not, aesthetically 

 considered, a beautiful thing; and it never 



