GATES OX THE LIXE OF APPROACH. 63 



the easiest possible way, curving round the hills, and 

 avoiding the hollows — shunning cuttings and fillings 

 alike. It should, on breaking into the finer grounds 

 adjajcent to the house, rather surprise the stranger at 

 the magnitude and grandeur of the place, than to show 

 it only as he had fancied it from the glimpses he had 

 caught in his passage up. 'We have seen places which 

 struck us with disappointment on arriving at the main 

 points of attraction, from their less imposing character, 

 in reality, than thev showed when approaching them 

 from the entrance. The view from the house should, 

 if possible, surpass all others ; or, if not, the grand 

 view of the place should not be an everv-day afiair, 

 to be stopped for, and gazed at as the lion of the 

 establishment, at any one point in the usual approach. 

 It should be apart and by itself, to hold divided 

 empire with nothing else on the premises. — Ed. 



Gates ox the Lixe of the Prixcipal Appegach. — 

 Gates intervening between the entrance-lodge and the 

 main door of the house should, generally speaking, 

 be avoided. They either betoken some want of skill 

 on the part of the designer, or they are the result of 

 some mal-arrangement of the subdivisions of the park, 

 or, perhaps, of additions to the dressed gi'ounds. The 

 only excei:)tions to this rule are the cases in which 

 parks and pleasure-grounds are very extensive. In 

 Buch circumstances, secondary gates and lodges may 

 be necessary. Even in small residences, when the 

 approach cannot be protected by a fence, the whole 

 way to the main door of the house, a light iron gate 

 may be required to defend the piece of lawn or 

 ornamental ground before the entrance-front. The 

 subdivision of the park for grazing purposes, is the 



