220 PLANS Of RESIDENCES 



beauty of the others ; and all succeed, by a harmonious improve- 

 ment of their grounds on a common plan, to realize a great deal of 

 beauty for which each one pays but a small share. Suppose the 

 city-house number three were placed twenty feet nearer the street, 

 it would then destroy the opportunity for the fine lawn on the line 

 A, B ; its blank side-walls would be marplots of the block on both 

 sides ; and its front-porch and bay-window, which now have charm- 

 ing outlooks in each direction, would then have little in view but 

 the sidewalk and the street. By placing the house back on a line 

 with the others, the owner has therefore made a great profit for 

 himself, and conferred an equal one on his neighbors. Let him 

 carry the same good sense a little farther. He has not cared to 

 have much ground, but that strip twenty-five feet in width in front 

 of his house must, in some way, be made creditable to the neigh- 

 borhood. If it were filled with trees, shrubs, or flowers, these 

 would destroy his grass-plat and outlooks, and his neighbors would 

 have no considerable length of grassy ground ; it would be selfish, 

 after securing pleasant views from his bay-window over his neigh- 

 bors' improvements, to so plant his own lot that their views would 

 be destroyed. We would therefore suggest to him not to plant a 

 tree, or a shrub, in front of his steps ; but to place in the centre of 

 the space in front of the bay-window a vase for flowers, of the most 

 beautiful and substantial form that he can afford, and make it his 

 " family pride " to see that the filling of the vase and of the small 

 flower-beds in front and behind it is as perfect a piece of art as 

 possible. The plain lawn surrounding them, and the absence of 

 any attempt at rural effect in front of this city-house, will alone 

 give it an air of distinguished simplicity, while these characteristics 

 will make its lawn, and vase, and flowers, a harmonious part of the 

 common improvement of the whole block-front. We thus see how 

 the owner of the narrowest lot of the group holds, as it were, the 

 key to the best improvement of the block, and by the use of gen- 

 erous good sense, or the want of it, can consummate or mar the 

 beauty of a whole neighborhood of grounds. 



On lot i, the house and grounds resemble those shown on 

 Plate VI, though they are not identical. Besides the fruit trees 

 in the back-yard it should have no other trees, except one of 



