§ 110,111. 



HOUSES AND GARDENS. 347 



was a rage for serpentine walks, and the wildness of nature 

 up to the very walls of the house — the dressed garden having 

 been proscribed throughout the country. To be nestled 

 amidst overhanging trees was thought the highest recom- 

 mendation of a country house ; and it could certainly boast a 

 degree of damp and seclusion which distinguished it from a 

 town house. But more sensible notions are now gaining 

 ground; and winding walks (quite as unlike nature as the 

 most formal ones), with stagnant pieces of water brought up 

 close to the house, to aid the trees in making it damp, arc 

 giving way to the dressed garden ; and the utility and beauty 

 of evergreens are acknowledged as a shelter to the walks, 

 and as an agreeable substitute for bare branches during the 

 winter. {See below, on Gardens.) 



111. Though the Elizabethan house is so well suited to our 

 climate in the country, it is by no means desirable for a town ; 

 and all imitations of it, as well as Gothic fronts, in a street, are 

 unsuitable and out of character. In towns the Italian style is 

 far preferable ; and provided the roof really covers the house 

 with projecting eaves and a rich cornice beneath them, having 

 no snow-catching balustrade, no attic above the cornice formed 

 out of a string-course, no half columns, and no bare undressed 

 windows, there is no style better suited to a town mansion. 

 It is the very one adapted to a club ; and, indeed, unless an 

 architect is capable of making a handsome building for that 

 purpose, he cannot be said to understand the true principles 

 of Italian architecture. There are some few buildings in 

 London which may be cited as good specimens of this style, 

 especially the last house on the south-east side of Palace 

 Gardens, and the Eeform and a few other clubs; and the 

 failures in some of the latter may probably be attributable to 

 the interference of incapable and irresponsible committees. 



An appearance of oneness of design. in architecture is a great 

 recommendation; for it is a glaring fault in a building to look 



