492 Notices of some Gardens and Country Seats 



great value to any estate, either in an ornamental or useful point 

 of view. We would cut down almost the whole of these trees, 

 and allow the self-sown hollies, every where springing up, to 

 form, with a few scattered trees of such kinds as may be already 

 grown up, an evergreen wood. The house is most judiciously 

 placed. In style, it is exteriorly in a sort of modernised Tudor- 

 Gothic, while the stable offices form a separate group in an 

 early castellated manner, with battlements and a portcullis ap- 

 pearing over the main gateway. The idea of this difference 

 of style between the offices and the mansion, the former being 

 intended to represent the ancient castle metamorphosed into 

 stables, and the actual dwelling-house being supposed to be a 

 comparatively modern building, is good on paper as a theory, 

 but is here carried rather too far ; a portcullis, in good repair, 

 being shown over the modern stable gates. The great dif- 

 ference in style is aggravated by the colour of the stone; which 

 in the offices is nearly of a brick red, coarsely hewn, and in the 

 mansion is of a light Bath-like stone, quite smooth. Inde- 

 pendently altogether of antiquarian and architectural associations, 

 the red colour of the offices, in artists' language, kills that of 

 the mansion. Had both been of the same colour, the objections 

 we have suggested would not have been nearly so strong. We 

 could almost wish that the house had been of red stone, for we 

 think it would have gone far to prevent an idea which arose in 

 our minds at first sight, that the house was too ornamental and 

 villa-like for the grandeur of the situation. Fortunately, there 

 are no large trees close to it, otherwise it would appear too low. 

 A house, unless it is in the cottage style or villa style, should 

 always be higher than the average height of the trees in the 

 country in which it is situated. This, we think, is a self-evident 

 principle ; since, as the house is the chief object in the land- 

 scape, it should be more conspicuous than the trees, which are 

 only accessories. It is true that a house may be rendered more 

 conspicuous than the trees, simply by placing it where there are 

 no trees before it, and where those at the back and sides are at 

 some distance from it ; in short, by placing it in such a situation 

 and circumstances as those of the house at Mamhead. Still we 

 are of opinion that the house at Mamhead, to be in harmony 

 with the grandeur of the place, ought to have been higher, and 

 in a simpler style ; for elevation and simplicity are the most 

 effective elements of the sublime. As an example of a modern 

 house in a naturally grand situation, and intended to be expres- 

 sive of grandeur and dignity, reduced to the character of a villa 

 by the height of the surrounding trees, we refer to Lowther 

 Castle. This building has nothing of the castle character but 

 round towers and battlements ; and these and the masses should 

 have been one third part higher, so as to be seen at a distance 



