200 



THE VILLA GAKDENER. 



approaches being arranged so as to form foregrounds to the distant scenery, 

 and to exclude near objects in the adjoining properties, which might be con- 

 sidered as not worth looking at. Along the centre of the ridge, there might 

 be an irregular-margined avenue of turf, in the manner of the green drives 

 at Fonthill, Goodwood, Stourhead, &c. 



296. Character of the country. — But to return to our choice. The five 

 fields, / to j, are supposed to contain no great variety of surface ; and the 

 country around to be tame rather than 'otherwise, and in the same style as that 

 which lies north of London, along the Edgware Road. The purchaser, we 

 shall suppose, now employs a landscape-gardener, whose first business is to 

 procure a plan to be made, such as fig. 106., in which the ring-fence of the 



five fields is shown, enclosing a space thrown into squares by dotted lines. 

 These dotted lines are, as they ought to be in every working plan of this kind, 

 in the exact direction of north and south, and east and west, for more con- 

 venient reference and description, and future use in marking out improve- 

 ments on the ground. Before the squares are drawn on the plan, they ought 

 previously to be marked out on the ground, and a small stake placed in every 

 intersection of the lines; that is, at every corner of each square, as shown in 

 the figure. The squares may be 50 ft., or 100 ft., or 200ft., on the side, 

 according to the extent of the plot, the inequalities of its surface, or the 

 alterations which are to be made in it. In the case before us, they are sixteen 

 in number, exclusive of the portions of squares round the boundary ; each 

 square is 130 ft. on the side, and each contains half an acre and 22 poles. 



