THE SELECTION OF HOME GROUNDS 5 



sought for the road that is to lead to the house, it will 

 be found, perhaps, that some knoll prevents its entrance 

 on the grounds at the best point. When the course of 

 the road is continued farther, contiguous knolls may 

 again make it winding and difficult to traverse with a 

 horse and wagon, and the selection or adoption of some 

 steep grade becomes necessary to reach the house. It is, 

 moreover, a dangerous thing to attempt to radically 

 change the natural contours of any territory, so our way 

 out in building roads and paths and locating houses in 

 such places is not an easy one. In these lands of hills 

 and dales, water will be apt to collect in pockets and 

 threaten us with unhealthy^Onditions. 



Finally, as years go on, we will find that the lawns will 

 not be as enduring under the stress of drought, and the 

 banks more liable to wash, on picturesque hill lots than 

 elsewhere. Indeed, the problem of selecting a home in 

 rugged regions becomes often so hard to solve that an 

 expert may easily make mistakes, for even our greatest 

 architects make them in their most approved city build- 

 ings. Common sense, therefore, and a general feeling 

 in favor of economy of effect should prompt us to seek 

 the line of least resistance, and establish our houses and 

 grounds where the conditions readily shape themselves 

 to our hands. 



The author does not wish to imply that all lots on 

 picturesque broken ground are objectionable, but sim- 

 ply to explain some of the difficulties that are likely to 

 arise when an attempt is made to create a home on such 

 land. There is little doubt that a level lot is better 

 suited to the general purposes of a home than a hilly 

 one, but, all the same, the reader may come across a 

 property, rugged and broken, which does in the most 



