EXTENT OF THE SITE. 9 



least have the most favourable station in the district, by 

 occupying the first or second of the lowest platforms of 

 the valley in which it stands. 



Extent of the Site. — On undulating or hiHy sur- 

 faces the site selected for the house should always be of 

 sufficient extent^ not only to contain the whole of its 

 buildings, but also to afford ample space for the roads, 

 and room for carriages turning at the entrance, together 

 with a broad walk and terrace on the drawing-room 

 front. Inattention to these requisites will often lead to 

 great subsequent expense and inconvenience. TTe have 

 seen a fine mansion so put down between two steep 

 banks that at its entrance there was scarcely room to 

 turn a donkey-cart, if we may be permitted to employ a 

 familiar but tmdignified comparison- At the same time, 

 the garden front was such that it required a thick waU 

 reared up from a considerable depth below to form a 

 walk a few yards wide in front of a pile of buildings 

 which would grace a terrace of magnificent dimensions. 

 Such an error, if we may presume to call it one, was 

 rendered excusable, or at least was accounted for, by the 

 circumstance that it was the site of an ancient ancestral 

 castle that was thus occupied. We cannot wonder that 

 old feudal associations and family recollections should 

 lead "^ afar descended" proprietors to cleave to some par- 

 ticular spot as thefr time-haUowed homestead. Still we 

 sometimes think that there is bad economy of cherished 

 memories in thus enveloping and concealing the old with 

 the new. If an eligible site were to be fotmd in the 

 vicinity, we should rather have chosen that for the 

 house, and have left the ruin in its own inherent dignity: 

 — so would there have been two objects of interest 

 instead of one ; and the fragment of departed grandetir 



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