H"OW TO CHOOSE A SITE FOR A COUNTRY-SEAT. 165 



trees that can teach us lessons of antiquity, not less instructive and 

 poetical than the ruins of a past age. 



Our first hint, therefore, to persons about choosing a site for a 

 country place, is, in all possible cases, to look for a situation where 

 there is some natural wood. With this for the warp strong, rich, 

 and permanent you may embroider upon it all the gold threads 

 of fruit and floral embellishment with an effect equally rapid and 

 successful. Every thing done upon such a groundwork will tell at 

 once ; and since there is no end to the delightful task of perfecting 

 a country place, so long as there are thirty thousand species of 

 plants known, and at least thirty millions of varied combinations of 

 landscape scenery possible, we think there is little fear that the 

 possessor of a country place will not find time enough to employ 

 his time, mind, and purse, if he really loves the subject, even though 

 he find himself in possession ojf a fee-simple of a pretty number of 

 acres of fine wood. 



But we have already exhausted our present limits, and must 

 leave the discussion of other points to be observed in choosing a 

 country place until a future number. 



