Approaches 



51 



Fifthly. After the approach enters the park, it should 

 avoid skirting along its boundary, which betrays the 

 want of extent or unity of property. 



Sixthly. The house, unless very large and magni- 

 ficent, should not be seen at so great a distance as to 

 make it appear much smaller than it really is. 



Seventhly. The house should be at first presented in 

 a pleasing point of view. 



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 cir- 

 cuitous — unless sufficient obstacles, such as water or 

 inaccessible ground, appear to justify its course. 



I shall not here speak of the convenience or incon- 

 venience of a large town situated very near a park, but 

 of the influence that the proximity of a large town has 

 on the character of a park, which is very considerable, 

 because it must either serve to increase or to diminish 

 its importance ; the latter is at present the case with 

 respect to Tatton and Knutsford. 



The first essential of greatness in a place is the ap- 

 pearance of united and uninterrupted property, and it 

 is in vain that this is studied within the pale, if it is too 

 visibly contradicted without it. It is not to be ex- 

 pected that a large manufacturing town, like Knutsford, 

 can be the entire property of one individual ; but the 

 proportion of interest belonging to the adjoining 

 family should impress the mind with a sense of its 

 influence. 



There are various ways by which this effect is 

 occasionally produced, and 1 will mention some of 

 them, viz. the church and churchyard may be deco- 

 rated in a style that shall in some degree correspond 

 with that of the mansion; — the market-house, or 



