HOW TO CHOOSE A SITE FOR A COUNTRY-SEAT. 161 



place requires to be almost wholly created, is by no means either a 

 cheap or rapid process. Labor and patience must be added to 

 taste, time and money, before a bare site can be turned into smooth 

 lawns and complete pleasure-grounds. 



The best advice which the most experienced landscape gardener 

 can give an American about to select ground for a country residence, 

 is, therefore, to choose a site where there is natural ivood, and where 

 nature offers the greatest number of good features ready for a basis 

 upon which to commence improvements. 



We have, already, so often descanted on the superiority of trees 

 and lawns to all other features of ornamental places united, that our 

 readers are not, we trust, slow to side with us in a thorough appre- 

 ciation of their charms. 



Hence, when a site for a country place is to be selected (after 

 health and good neighborhood), the first points are, if possible, to 

 secure a position where there is some existing wood, and where the 

 ground is so disposed as to offer a natural surface for a fine lawn. 

 These two points secured, half the battle is fought, for the framework 

 or background of foliage being ready grown, immediate shelter, 

 shade, and effect is given as soon as the house is erected ; and a 

 surface well shaped for a lawn (or one which requires but trifling 

 alterations) once obtained, all the labor and cost of grading is 

 avoided, and a single season's thorough preparation gives you velvet 

 to walk about upon. 



Some of our readers, no doubt, will say this is excellent advice, 

 but unfortunately not easily followed. So many are forced to build 

 on a bare site, " and begin at the beginning." 



This is no doubt occasionally true, but in nine cases out of ten, 

 in this country, our own observation has convinced us that the 

 choice of a poor location is the result of local prejudice, or want of 

 knowledge of the subject, rather than of necessity. 



How frequently do we see men paying large prices for indifferent 

 sites, when at a distance of half a mile there are one or more posi- 

 tions on which nature has lavished treasures of wood and water, and 

 spread out undulating surfaces, which seem absolutely to court the 

 finishing touches of the rural artist. Place a dwelling in such a 

 site, and it appropriates all nature's handiwork to itself in a moment. 

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