16 THE ART AND PRACTICE OF LANDSCAPE GARDENING. 



favourable conditions that are important, but are not very readily 

 recognised. The sun exercises its fullest force between i and 2 p.m. 

 At that hour the rays fall at an angle on the wall, and so with 

 an indirect impact that saves much oppressive heat, without undue 

 loss of illumination ; in fact, the extremes of heat and cold are 

 modified. In the northern counties, it may be advisable to give 

 the house a more southern aspect when it is a consideration to 

 gain full advantage of the shorter period of sunshine, and particularly 

 when a series of the best chambers have to be brought under the 

 influence. 



(b\ It is of course an important consideration that such beauty 

 as may be derived from a prospect should be, so far as practicable, 

 open to the dwellers in the best apartments of the house, and the 

 position of the apartments may often be ruled accordingly. But 

 it is not desirable that the aspect of a residence should be 

 sacrificed to secure such a prospect. If need be, other positions may 

 be created in the gardens or grounds wherefrom the beauties of 

 the view may be fittingly contemplated ; but the conditions of 

 the aspect are fixed in their relation. ' No doubt all these questions 

 are matters of compromise in the end, but the steps whereby 

 such compromise is arrived at must be very warily and advisedly 

 taken. If it be determined that a fine view may be taken better 

 from a position in the garden than from the windows, another point 

 of attractiveness is created. Indeed, in country places especially, 

 it is a gain to create particular points of interest, such as a fine 

 prospect, a tennis-ground, a rose garden, an old-fashioned herbaceous 

 garden with trimmed hedges, or walls covered with climbers, a 

 (so-called) American garden, a fernery, a lake, etc. Such objects, 

 beautiful and pleasurable in themselves, yet requiring a slight ex- 

 cursion to reach them, are less commonplace than the stables, or 

 even the hothouses, to which the regulated trips are often made. 



