Book IV 



ACCIDENTAL ACCOMPANIMENTS. 



1017 



vary according to its distance, the inclination it makes with the horizon, and our rela- 

 tive* elevation or depression. A correspondent of Repton states, that " any two of the 

 above three things continuing the same, the apparent magnitude will decrease with the 

 third, though not in exact proportion to it. Thus, the object being perpendicular to the 

 horizon, and our elevation remaining the same, its apparent height will decrease with the 

 distance. Our elevation and the distance remaining the same, the apparent height of the 

 object will decrease with its inclination to the horizon. The inclination and distance 

 beino- the same, the angle, or apparent height, will decrease with our elevation or de- 

 pression, supposing our height was at first the middle point of the object. This last 

 beino- liable to some exceptions, the general rule is, that the distance from the object, 

 measured by a perpendicular to it, the point at which its apparent height will be 

 greatest is, where the perpendicular from the eye falls upon the centre." 



7241 The difficulty in this subject is to know what the conception is that we shall form of the height and 

 magnitude of an object according to different circumstances; its apparent height, as well as its real height, 

 remaining the same. This cannot be reduced to rules, but depends 

 chiefly on a careful comparison of particular instances. One cause, 

 Repton considers, may proceed from the position of the eye itself, 

 which is so placed in most foreheads as to view a certain portion of 

 the hemisphere without any motion of the head. This portion 

 has been variously stated at from sixty to ninety degrees. The eye 

 surveys more in breadth than in height, and more below the axis 

 of vision {fig- 712. a) than above it. Much depends on the pro- 

 jection of the forehead and eyebrows, prominency of the eye, &c. 

 in different individuals ; yet the upper angle (a b) will seldom be 

 greater than one half of the lower angle (a c) ; and Repton ascer- 

 tained that he could not distinguish objects more than twenty 

 eight degrees above his axis of vision, though he could distinctly 

 see them fifty-one degrees below it. From hence, he concludes, 

 " that the distance at which an object appears at its greatest 

 height is, when the axis of vision, and the summit of the object, form an angle of about thirty degrees ; be- 

 cause, under this angle, the eye perceives its full 

 extent without moving the head." Thus, supposing 

 the eye (fig. 713. a) to be five feet six inches from 

 the ground, a tall object (b), at thirty feet distance, 

 will be seen to the height of twenty feet ; at fifty 

 feet distance (c), to the height of thirty feet; at 

 seventy feet distance (d), to the height of forty 

 feet ; at eightv-seven feet distance (e), to the height 

 of fifty feet ; "and at a hundred and five feet dis- 

 tance (/), to the height of sixty feet. {Observ- 

 ations on Landscape Gardening, p. 21.) 



7242. The approach in the modern style was well understood by Repton, and the fol- 

 lowing excellent observations by this artist seem to sum up every thing that can be said 

 on the subject : — The road by which a stranger is supposed to pass through the park or 

 lawn to the house is called an approach ; and there seems the same relation betwixt the 

 approach and the house externally hat there is internally betwixt the hall or entrance 

 and the several apartments to which it leads. If the hall be too large or too small, too 

 mean or too much ornamented for the style of the house, there is a manifest incongruity 

 in the architecture, by which good taste will be offended ; but if the hall be so situated 

 as not to connect well with the several apartments to which it ought to lead, it will then 

 be defective in point of convenience : so it is with respect to an approach ; it ought to be 

 convenient, interesting, and in strict harmony with the character and situation of the man- 

 sion to which it belongs. 



First. It ought to be a road to the house, and to that principally. 



Secondly. If it is not naturally the nearest road possible, it ought artificially to be made impossible to go 

 a nearer. 



Thirdly. The artificial obstacles which make this road the nearest ought to appear natural. 



Fourthly. Where an approach quits the high road, it ought not to break from it at right angles, or in 

 such a manner as robs the entrance of importance, but rather at some bend of the public road, from 

 whence a lodge or gate may be more conspicuous ; and where the high road may appear to branch from 

 the approach rather than the approach from the high road. 



Fifthly. After the approach enters the park, it should avoid skirting along its boundary, which betrays 

 the want of extent or unity of property. 



Sixthly. The house, unless very large and magnificent, should not be seen at so great a distance as to 

 make it appear much less than it really is. 



Seventhly. The first view of the house should be from the most pleasing point of sight. 



Frighthly. As soon as the house is visible from the approach, there should be no temptation to quit 

 it (which will ever be the case if the road be at all circuitous), unless sufficient obstacles, such as 

 water or inaccessible ground, appear to justify its course. (Enquiry into the Changes of Taste in Lands. 

 Gard. p. 109.) 



7243. Walks are the next accompaniment to home scenes, without which they cannot 

 be viewed but in particular states of the weather and the surface. They were straight, 

 angular, or in regular curves, in the geometric style, and are in easy natural-like lines 

 in the modern manner. Though avowed objects of art, they ought always to bear a cer- 

 tain analogy to the scenes they pass through ; with formal-kept hedges in highly finished 

 scenery, and edges blending with the gravel in the picturesque manner, recommended by 

 Price in more wild scenes. Taste must determine their general course, from the 

 range of beauties to be displayed ; and their particular turns, from local beauties and ac- 



