Chapter XI 



Endless Variety of Situation and Character — First 

 Impressions — Roads — Entrances — Adaptation 

 of Ornamental Buildings 



I HAVE occasionally been asked, when visiting a 

 beautiful spot, which, of all the places I had seen, 

 was the most beautiful? It is impossible to define 

 those circumstances which, on different persons, make 

 different impressions at first sight; perfection is no more 

 to be found in the works of nature than in those of art. 

 Such is the equal providence of the great Author of 

 nature that every place has its beauties and its deform- 

 ities, and, whether situated among the mountains of 

 Wales or on the margin of Clapham Common, it will 

 not only be endeared to its proprietor, but to the dis- 

 cerning stranger, by some peculiar features of beauty. 



The materials of natural landscape are ground, wood, 

 and water, to which man adds buildings, and adapts 

 them to the scene. It is therefore from the artificial 

 considerations of utility, convenience, and propriety, 

 that a place derives its real value in the eyes of a man 

 of taste : he will discover graces and defects in every 

 situation ; he will be as much delighted with a bed of 

 flowers as with a forest thicket, and he will be as much 

 disgusted by the fanciful affectation of rude nature in 

 tame scenery as by the trimness of spruce art in that 

 which is wild : the thatched hovel in a flower-garden 

 and the treillis bocage [grove trellis, trellis-work arched 

 overhead] in a forest are equally misplaced. 



