1 3 THE ART AND PRACTICE OF LANDSCAPE GARDENING. 



When we contemplate any landscape, the vision invariably travels 

 down a hollow or depression, natural or artificial, and the eye 

 seeks to estimate the most distant features first, then to gain from 



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intervening objects its measure, or presumed measure, of distances. 

 Thus the idea of distance can be created and artistically adapted. 

 In arranging the position of its principal chambers in a house, 

 it will be well to consider these facts when deciding on the site, 

 so that, so far as may be practicable, the rooms may be well 

 appropriate to the available views, or points of vantage in that 

 respect, existing, or to be created. The eye may be, as it were, 

 led to realise certain beauties, under the conditions ; but the possi- 

 bility of such conditions must be considered in choosing the site. 

 Sometimes the existence of a natural feature a group of old 

 trees, or even a single tree may go far toward determining many 

 questions of the choice. A venerable tree is a feature in decorative 

 work, having its fifty or sixty years of priceless value, that must 

 not be ignored or underestimated, because it may, and should be, 

 connected with the base of the house, and in such degree with 

 the house itself, to which, and to the whole design, it brings 

 by its mere age a characteristic appropriateness of adornment 

 that is of the highest value. It may be that a site has to be 

 chosen in this densely-populated land, where the least objection- 

 able points of view have to be considered rather than natural 

 beauties of wide prospect. In such circumstances, the site of the 

 residence should be kept as low as may be, and by raising the 

 surrounding ground, and by planting, all that is offensive may be 

 shut out. With every choice a house is well placed on a southern 

 hillside, preferably on a slight spur, at about one-third distance 

 from the top, so that shelter may be obtained from the hill, and 

 by planting above the house. 



(c). The question of natural shelter has an obvious connection 



