Chapter II 



Ground apparently altered by the Situation of the 

 Spectator — Refections from the Surface of Water 

 explained and applied — Different Effects of Light 

 on Different Objects 



THE field of vision, or the portion of landscape 

 which the eye will comprehend, is a circumstance 

 frequently mistaken in fixing the situation for a house; 

 since a view seen from the windows of an apartment will 

 materially differ from the same view seen in the open air. 

 In one case, without moving the head, we see from sixty 

 to ninety degrees, or, by a single motion of the head, 

 without moving the body, we may see every object within 

 one hundred and eighty degrees of vision. In the other 

 case the portion of landscape will be much less, and 

 must depend on the size of the window, the thickness 

 of the walls, and the distance of the spectator from the 

 aperture. Hence it arises that persons are frequently 

 disappointed, after building a house, to find that those 

 objects which they expected would form the leading 

 features of their landscape are scarcely seen, except 

 from such a situation in the room as may be incon- 

 venient to the spectator; or, otherwise, the object is 

 shewn in an oblique and unfavourable point of view. 

 This will be more clearly explained by the following 

 diagram [Fig. 9]. 



It is evident that a spectator at A can only see, through 

 an aperture of four feet, those objects which fall within 



