TREATMENT OF GROUND. FORMATION OF WALKS. 291 



view of the house shall be obtained. If seen at too great 

 a distance, as in the case of a large estate, it may appeal 

 more diminutive and of less magnitude than it should ; or. 

 if first viewed at some other position, it may strike the 

 eye of a stranger, at that point, unfavorably. The best, 

 and indeed the only way to decide the matter, is to go 

 over the whole ground covered by the Approach route 

 carefully, and select a spot or spots sufficiently near tc 

 give the most favorable and striking view of the house 

 itself. This, if openings are to be made, can only be done 

 in winter ; but when the ground is to be newly planted, it 

 may be prosecuted at any season. 



The late Mr. Repton, who was one of the most cele- 

 brated English practical landscape gardeners, has laid 

 down in one of his works, the following rules on the 

 subject, which we quote, not as applying in all cases, but 

 to show what are generally thought the principal requisites 

 of this road in the modern style. 



First. It ought to be a road to the house, and to that 

 principally. 



Secondly. If it be not naturally the nearest road 

 possible, it ought artificially to be made to appear so. 



Thirdly. The artificial obstacles which make this road 

 the nearest, ought to appear natural. 



Fourthly. Where an approach quits the high road, it 

 ought not to break from it at right angles, or in such a 

 manner as to rob the entrance of importance, but rather 

 at some bend of the public road, from which a lodge or 

 gate may be more conspicuous ; and where the high road 

 may appear to branch from the approach, rather than the 

 approach from the high road. 



