94 Landscape Gardening 



avoid skirting along its boundary, which betrays the want 

 of extent or unity of property. 



Si.iihli/. The house, unless very large and magnificent, 

 should not be seen at so great a distance as to make it 

 appear much less than it really is. 



Seventhli/. The first view of the house should be from 

 the most pleasing point of sight. 



Eighthly. As soon as the house is visible from the 

 approach, there should be no temptation to quit it (which 

 will ever be the case if the road be at all circuitous), unless 

 sufficient obstacles, such as water or inaccessible ground, 

 appear to justify its course.* 



Although there are many situations where these rules 

 must be greatly modified in practice, yet the improver will 

 do well to bear them in mind, as it is infinitely more easy to 

 make occasional deviations from general rules, than to carry 

 out a tasteful improvement without any guiding principles. 



There are many fine country residences on the banks of 

 the Hudson, Connecticut, and other rivers, where the pro- 

 prietors are often much perplexed and puzzled, by the 

 situation of their houses; the building presenting really 

 two fronts, while they appear to desire only one. Such is 

 the case when the estate is situated between the public 

 road on one side, and the river on the other; and we have 

 often seen the approach artificially tortured into a long 

 circuitous route, in order finally to arrive at what the 

 proprietor considers the true front, viz., the side nearest 

 the river. When a building is so situated, much the most 

 elegant effect is produced by having two fronts: one, the 

 entrance front, with the porch or portico nearest the road, 

 and the other, the river front, facing the water. The beauty 

 of the whole is often surprisingly enhanced by this arrange- 

 ment, for the visitor, after passing by the approach through 

 a considerable portion of the grounds, with perhaps but 

 slight and partial glimpses of the river, is most agreeably 

 surprised on entering the house, and looking from the 

 drawing-room windows of the other front, to behold another 



c Bepton's Inquiry into the Changes of Taste in Landscape Gardening. 



