Landscape Gardening 



a matter, especially considering the rapid transitions which 

 property is now frequently undergoing, diligent investigation 

 will commonly prove a tolerably safe guide. 



Those localities unquestionably offer the greatest security 

 in regard to the preservation of a respectable and partially 

 rural character wherein large tracts are in the hands of one 

 or two proprietors who bind lessees or purchasers to build 

 only a certain number and class of houses on the land and 

 themselves agree to lay it out strictly according to a definite 

 plan. Here there is something approaching to absolute cer- 

 tainty, and a person may settle on a given spot with the full 

 knowledge of what alone can be done by all his neighbors, 

 and the actual pecuniary and social status of those neighbors. 



Where several plots of land overlook fine natural scenery, 

 as on the shores of large rivers, lakes; or the sea, that which 

 is nearest the object itself will generally be the most eligible, 

 if other things are about equal. For the view over a natural 

 landscape that is incapable of alteration, and with no inter- 

 vening space that can ever be used by another party, becomes 

 perfectly safe from interruption at any future period, and 

 may be treated much more liberally and with reference solely 

 to individual wants and tastes. Every position farther from 

 the scenery most worth preserving, however unencumbered 

 the view from it may be, will be liable to have that view 

 more or less intercepted by the uses to which the interposing 

 property may be put, unless the elevation be very consider- 

 able and the slope of the ground rapid and almost precipitous. 



If, again, land on both sides of a public road commands 

 the same beautiful scenery, that which is on the side nearest 

 the scenery itself will be greatly superior as the site for a 

 house and garden; because, on the opposite plot, a partial 

 plantation will have to be made to screen the place from the 

 road, and this will, to some extent, block out the view, while 



