1 86 The Art of Landscape Gardening 



While treating on the subject of ornaments and deco- 

 rations, I must not omit to mention colours, since im- 

 proper colouring may destroy the intended effect of the 

 most correct design and render ridiculous what would 

 otherwise be beautiful. Both the form and the colour of 

 a small house in Langley Park rendered it an object 

 unworthy of its situation ; yet, from peculiar circum- 

 stances, it was not deemed advisable either to remove it 

 or to hide it by plantations. I therefore recommended 

 a Doric portico to cover the front ; and thus a building 

 formerly unsightly, because out of character with the 

 park, became its brightest ornament, doing honour to 

 the taste and feelings of the noble proprietor, who pre- 

 served the house for having been a favourite retreat 

 of his mother, and which, thus ornamented, may be 

 considered as a temple sacred to filial piety. 



In the following instances there is something more 

 than harmony of colours ; there is an association from 

 habit, which causes part of our pleasure or disgust. 



A compact red house displeases from the meanness 

 of its materials, because we suppose it to be of common 

 red bricks, although it may perhaps be of the red stone 

 of Herefordshire. 



On the contrary, a large pile of red buildings is not 

 so displeasing; witness the houses of Cobham,Glemham, 

 etc., and the royal palaces of St. James's, Hampton 

 Court, Kensington, etc. ; but perhaps the weather-stains 

 of time may have contributed more than the quantity 

 to reconcile us to the colour of these large masses. 



Lime-whitened houses offend the eye, partly from the 

 violent glare and partly from the associated meanness 

 of a lath and plaster building, but if a little black and 

 yellow be mixed with the lime, the resemblance to the 

 colour of stone satisfies the eye almost as much as if it 



