DRESS GROUND. 37 



every vestige of intricacy and repose ; while 

 a sunk fence excludes the cattle from that 

 lawn which is apparently open to them, or the 

 flimsy barrier of an iron hurdle is attached to 

 a building whose ivyed battlements have 

 witnessed the lapse of ages. 



What compensation, then, does the modern 

 system offer for this destruction of all com- 

 fort ? Let us consider the question, as we 

 proposed, secondly, as to propriety, beauty^ 

 and picturesque effect. 



By propriety, I mean that harmony which 

 should invariably exist between the mansion 

 and its accompaniments ; and if it be true 

 that external objects affect us by the impres- 

 sion which they make on the senses, and by 

 the reflections which they suggest to the mind, 

 how essential is it that the accompaniments 

 and decorations of the old system should be 

 maintained around the building to which 

 they have been united, perhaps, for centuries \ 

 Whoever has visited Powis Castle (as com- 

 plete in its parts as it is interesting as a 

 whole), may form some idea of the violence 

 that would have been done both to the senses, 

 and the mind, had the impr^ovement been there 



D S 



