76 The Art of Landscape Gardening 



to its original shape; but a little reflection on the char- 

 acter and situation of the place naturally led me to 

 inquire whether some considerable advantage might not 

 be derived from the mischief which had thus been 

 already done. 



Few situations command so varied, so rich, and so 

 extensive a view as the fort. Situated on the summit 

 of a hill which looks over the vast city of Bristol, it 

 formerly surveyed the river and the beautiful country 

 surrounding it without being incommoded by too much 

 view of the city itself; but the late prodigious increase 

 of buildings had so injured the prospect of this house 



that its original advantages of situation were almost de- 

 stroyed, and there was some reason to doubt whether 

 it could ever be made desirable either as a villa or as 

 a country residence, because it was not only exposed to 

 the unsightly rows of houses in Park Street and Berke- 

 ley Square, but it was liable to be overlooked by the 

 numerous crowds of people who claimed a right of foot- 

 path through the park immediately before the windows. 

 It was, therefore, as public as any house in any square 

 or street of Bristol. If the earth had been simply put 

 back to the places from whence it had been taken, the 

 expense of its removal would have been greater than the 

 method which occurred to me as more advisable; viz. 

 to fill up the chasms partly, by levelling the sides into 

 them, and raising a bank with a wall to exclude the foot- 

 path, as shewn in the accompanying section [Fig. 5], 



