20 THE ART AND PRACTICE OF LANDSCAPE GARDENING. 



to modify them by art, have a strong bearing on the selection of 

 a site. The ground level of the house should always be placed 

 high enough, and yet nothing should be done that may give an 

 appearance that the structure is "perched up." This is an initial con- 

 sideration ; and very frequently an error in judgment of this kind 

 vitiates much of the gratification that is gained by the excellence 

 of work in other details. The mistake is most frequently made 

 when dealing with sloping and low ground, and in those circum- 

 stances should be most guarded against. -We should carefully bear 

 in mind that a house will never look perched up if sufficient 

 ground base be given to it. The proper effect is gained by an 

 arrangement of the contiguous surrounding ground- surface ; the 

 relation of the house to the terrace (which is, in fact, the plateau 

 of the building, with its graduating outlying features), and an 

 artistic treatment of these lines in careful avoidance of abruptness. 

 It is conservative of healthy conditions, as well as more tasteful, 

 to keep the house, as it were, out of the ground ; and should the 

 design not include terraced walks, or building constructions connected 

 with them, yet the effect may, in degree, be obtained by earth- 

 working. Soil may be taken from the upper side of the house site, 

 or where the ground requires to be lowered, or where undulations 

 have had to be created, and thus the material requisite may be 

 obtained. The ground level of Lord Wolverton's house at Iwerne 

 Minster, the site of which was of necessity fixed on level ground, 

 was raised ten feet above the surrounding plain ; then by the 

 making of a terrace garden, on the southern and eastern sides, and 

 by graduating the raised ground between the house entrance on 

 the northern side and the level, the desired effect was created, 

 for it is not possible to detect that the house has not been built 

 on a knoll. In a case where the ground rises steeply, or abruptly, 

 on one side of the house, and it would be an unduly expensive 



