ON THE FORMATION OF THE LAWN OR GROUND IN 

 IMMEDIATE CONNECTION WITH THE HOUSE. 



Previously to erecting a mansion, the greatest care should be taken to obtain 

 the proper levels. An error (for want of this precaution) is often productive 

 of most serious inconvenience and expense. For instance, when called in 

 after a house has been commenced, I have often found the bottom of the 

 plinths, which is the point that ought to regulate the level of the finished 

 ground, placed considerably too high ; so much so, that an immense 

 quantity of materials, not always available, and often to be procured from a 

 distance, and consequently at great cost, has been required for raising the 

 ground about the mansion, and bringing it into harmony with the park and 

 the rest of the pleasure ground. Moreover, for want of materials to level 

 with, the improver is 



compelled to form an Figure 4. 



otherwise unnecessary 

 terrace or terraces, or 

 raise a sudden artifi- 

 cial knoll (figure 4, 



dotted fine a), which must evi- 

 dently not only appear as such, 

 but also produce the appear- 

 ance of being inadequate to 

 support the edifice, from its steepness at so short a distance from the building, 

 which ought rather to appear bold and natural, as at b. 



Although I approve of the terrace with its wall, (as will be seen here- 

 after), which would assist greatly in improving the appearance, yet it is not 

 every gentleman who will either approve or be at the expense of it. Without 

 it, however, the building would seem disproportionate in its elevations. A 



c 



