Theory and Practice 177 



In this miscellaneous chapter may properly be in- 

 serted some specimens of various buildings, to eluci- 

 date the truth of an observation, which hardly seems to 

 require enforcing; yet the frequent introduction of orna- 

 mental buildings, copied from books, without reference 

 to the character and situation of the scenery, is not less 

 fatal to the good taste of the country than it would be 

 to the life of individuals to use medical prescriptions 

 without inquiring into the nature and cause of diseases. 



The facility with which a country carpenter can erect 

 small buildings intended for ornament may perhaps 

 account for their frequency ; but I am not ashamed to 

 confess that I have often experienced more difficulty 

 in determining the form and size of a hovel or a park 

 entrance than in arranging the several apartments of 

 a large mansion ; indeed, there is no subject on which 

 I have so seldom satisfied my own judgement as in that 

 of an entrance to a park. 



The custom of placing a gate between two square 

 boxes, or, as it is called, a " pair of lodges," has always 

 appeared to me absurd, because it is an attempt to give 

 consequence to that which in itself is mean ; the habita- 

 tion of a single labourer, or perhaps of a solitary old 

 woman to open the gate, is split into two houses for 

 the sake of childish symmetry. As this absurd fashion 

 of a pair of lodges deserves to be treated with ridicule, 

 I cannot help mentioning the witty comment of a cele- 

 brated lady, who, because they looked like tea-caddies, 

 wrote on two such lodges, in large letters, " Green " and 

 " Bohea." And very often the most squalid misery is 

 found in the person thus banished from society, who 

 inhabits a dirty room of a few feet square. It is the 

 gate, and not the dwelling of the person who opens it, 

 that ought to partake of the character of the house. 



