400 



SECTION XI. 



Note I. Page 285. 



The lodge and entrance-gate to the park, with their combined fea- 

 tures woody and architectural, if properly executed, should be one of 

 the most pleasing accessories to the landscape, in a well laid out place. 

 As they are the first to meet the stranger's eye, so they should, like a 

 good saloon or entrance-hall to a house, convey a favourable impression 

 of the propriety and good taste of the arrangements within. A good 

 lodge should present the idea of an " ornamental cottage," always 

 harmonizing with the style of the mansion-house ; not a fantastical or 

 non-descript hut, covered with thatch, and buried in creepers, and har- 

 monizing with nothing good or bad, natural or artificial, about the place. 

 But lodges and gateways, in which we should expect the joint skill and 

 taste of the architect and the landscape gardener, are, generally speak- 

 ing, very dull and monotonous things, which can do little credit to the 

 artists, and give no pleasure to the owner. 



It must, however, be acknowledged, that it is the landscape gar- 

 dener, and not the architect, who is chiefly in fault in this business. 

 Mr. Hunt, and other late architects, who have turned their attention to 

 rural decoration, have sufficiently redeemed the credit of their art, by 

 various sketches for buildings of this description, so that we are not now, 

 as heretofore, without models, from which to form a very tasteful selec- 

 tion. With regard to the other department, I shall beg leave, as a sort 

 of ex-professor of that art, to offer a few hints, for the improvement of 

 park entrances, on the present occasion. By rendering them better 

 pictures, than they now display, I should hope, that they might become 

 at once more interesting to the traveler who passes by, and more attrac- 

 tive to the visitor, who enters the grounds to which they belong. 



In accomplishing this object, I propose to proceed on two simple prin- 

 ciples. The first is, to recommend the study of open work, more than 

 has usually been adopted, in the disposition of the woody accompani- 

 ments of the buildings : and the second is, to give i\vem foreground and 

 consequence, by throwing them back from the public road to a certain 



