I02 THE FORMAL GARDEN IN ENGLAND v 



are enough to show that the fore court was not 

 tied down to one uniform plan, but might be 

 varied indefinitely to meet the conditions of the 

 house and grounds. The house court was 

 abandoned for the practical reason that it 

 prevented a carriage drawing up at the front 

 door ; but no such objection holds against the 

 fore court. It gives privacy to the house, and 

 when properly planned, provides a convenient 

 means of grouping the stables and outbuildings 

 with the main block of the house. Existing 

 instances show that there is no reason why it 

 should not be applied to small country houses 

 as well as to big ones. Nothing can be meaner 

 than the carriage-drive and rhododendron bed 

 which usually form a miserable apology for a 

 fore court proper. The advantages of a fore 

 court where the ground is shut in by a road 

 in front and buildings at the sides are obvious. 



The terrace is admitted, even by the land- 

 scapist, to be desirable near the house. In the 

 first place, it presents to the eye a solid founda- 

 tion for the house to start from, and gives the 

 house itself greater importance by raising it 

 above the level of the adjacent grounds, and 

 again it is healthier. There is something un- 

 comfortable in the idea of a house placed flat 

 on the ground or down in a hole. It need not 

 necessarily be damp, but one always imagines 

 that it will, and that the timber will decay, and 

 the plaster moulder, and rats run over the floor ; 



