AND GROUNDS. 223 



adjoining place for the fine open lawn that is in view from the bow- 

 window ; but as the finest rooms of the house on lot 2 are equally 

 dependent on the outlook across lot i for their pleasing views, it 

 is not to be supposed that the occupants of either would wish to 

 interrupt the advantageous exchange. The extreme openness of 

 lawn on the front of both places, and the almost total absence of 

 shrubbery on the front of No. i, is for the purpose of giving a gener- 

 ous air to both, and to maintain all the advantages of reciprocity. 

 It would be quite natural to suppose that No. i, which is an old 

 place remodelled, had once had its front yard filled full of shrubs 

 and trees, and that in the formation of the new lawn in the rear the 

 shrubbery was mostly removed to make the lawn more open, and 

 to stock the groups of the new plantation ; and then that the 

 flower-beds were planned to relieve its plainness, without obstruct- 

 ing the neighbor's views, as shrubs and trees might. 



The house on lot No. 2 is 40 x 44 feet, with a kitchen-wing 

 18 x 24. Having the main entrance on the side, the carriage-way 

 passes the door, on the way to the stable, without unnecessary detour ; 

 and the best rooms of the house occupy the entire front. The house 

 is considerably smaller than that on lot No. i, though all its rooms 

 are of ample size ; the difference between the houses being in the 

 stately parlor and bed-room on the first floor, which the house on 

 lot No. i has, and the other has not. The sitting-room and parlor 

 of the latter, however, opening together by sliding doors, will be 

 fully equal in effect to the single parlor in the former plan ; and, in 

 proportion to its size, the latter seems to us the best house-plan. 



The details of the planting on both places we can follow no 

 further than the plate indicates them, without drawings on a larger 

 scale to refer to. The fronts are simple and open to a degree that 

 may be unsatisfactory to many persons especially near the street- 

 front of the corner lot ; but as that lot is supposed to be richly 

 embellished with shrubbery in the pleasure-ground back of the 

 carriage-entrance, we believe the marked simplicity of the front will 

 tend to make the new portion of the place more interesting by the 

 contrast which its plainness presents to the profusion of sylvan and 

 floral embellishments of the pleasure-ground proper. 



