128 LANDSCAPE GARDENING. 



the bad taste ; and that he has laid the foundation of expenditures 

 far beyond his income. 



He finds himself now in a dilemma, of which there are two 

 horns. One of them is the necessity of laying out and keeping up 

 large pleasure-grounds, gardens, &c., to correspond to the style and 

 character of his house. The other is to allow the house to remain 

 in the midst of beggarly surroundings of meadow and stubble ; or, 

 at the most, with half executed and miserably kept grounds on 

 every side of it. 



Nothing can be more unsatisfactory than either of these posi- 

 tions. If he is seduced into expenditures en grand seigneur ', to keep 

 up the style in which the mansion or villa has been erected, he 

 finds that instead of the peace of mind and enjoyment which he 

 expected to find in the country, he is perpetually nervous about the 

 tight place in his income, constantly obliged to make an effort to 

 maintain that which, when maintained, gives no more real pleasure 

 than a residence on a small scale. 



If, on the other hand, he stops short, like a prudent man, at the 

 mighty show of figures at the bottom of the builder's accounts, 

 and leaves all about in a crude and unfinished condition, then he 

 has the mortification, if possessed of the least taste, of knowing that 

 all the grace with which he meant to surround his country home, 

 has eluded his grasp ; that he lives in the house of a noble, set in 

 the fields of a sluggard. This he feels the more keenly, after a 

 walk over the grounds of some wiser or more fortunate neighbor, 

 who has been able to sweep the whole circle of taste, and better ad- 

 vised, has realized precisely that which has escaped the reach of 

 our unfortunate improver. Is it any marvel that the latter should 

 find himself disappointed in the pleasures of a country life ? 



Do we thus portray the mistakes of country life in order to dis 

 suade persons from retiring ? Far from it. There is no one who 

 would more willingly exhibit its charms in the most glowing colors. 

 But we would not lure the traveller into an Arcadia, without telling 

 him that there are not only golden fruits, but also others, which 

 may prove Sodom-apples if ignorantly plucked. We would not 

 hang garlands of flowers over dangerous pits and fearful chasms. It 

 is rather our duty and pleasure loudly to warn those who are likely 



