STYLE OF THE HOUSE. 29 



the beautiful, another for the picturesque, and yet 

 another for the romantic. We confess ourselves un- 

 romautic enough to think that a comfortably arranged 

 interior is of greater moment to the proprietor than the 

 finest exterior can possibly be. At the same time, a 

 good external appearance is not a matter of trifling 

 importance, nor is it incompatible with a good internal 

 arrangement. A proprietor of refined taste will natu- 

 rally wish that his house should unite both of these 

 desirable qualities, and at the same time that it should 

 be properly adapted to its site and position in the 

 park. Before beginning to build, it is well to consider 

 what style is best suited to the locality. Undoubtedly, 

 the style should be selected for that site which on 

 general grounds is considered the best, rather than that 

 a site inconvenient in itself should be inconsiderately 

 chosen, on account of some fancied adaptation to a 

 particular style of house. It appears incongruous, we 

 might almost say absurd, to place a street-looking 

 house in a highland glen, or a castellated mansion on 

 a plain as flat as a bowling-green. Such mistakes are 

 not unfrequent. We may add, that the external ap- 

 pearance should have such a relation to the internal 

 arrangements that the spectator on the outside should 

 have no room for mistake as to which is the entrance 

 front, which the drawing-room side, and what portion 

 of it is occupied by the ofiices and inferior apartments. 

 The public rooms should have some external indica- 

 tion, if not of their individual use, at least of their 

 general purpose. To the improver of the park and 

 pleasure-grounds, the external appearance of the house 

 is always a matter of great interest, as the house is the 

 central point to which all his operations are referred, 



