HOW TO QHOOSE A SITE FOR A COUNTRY-SEAT. 



December, IStl. 



HOW to choose the site for a country house, is a subject now 

 occupying the thoughts of many of our' countrymen, and 

 therefore is not undeserving a few words from us at the present 

 moment. 



The greater part of those who build country-seats in the United 

 States, are citizens who retire from the active pursuits of town to en- 

 joy, in the most rational' way possibla| the fortunes accumulated 

 there — that is to say, in the creation of beautiful and agreeable rural 

 homes; 



Whatever may be the natural taste of this class, their avoca- 

 tions have not permitted them to become familiar with the difiBcul- 

 ties to be encountered in making a new place, or the most successful 

 way of accomplishing all that they propose to themselves. Hence, 

 we not unfrequently see a very complete house surrounded, for years, 

 by very unfinished and meagre grounds. Weary .'vyith ' the labor and 

 expense of levelling earth, opening roads and walks, and clothing a 

 naked place with new plantations, all of which he finds far less easily 

 accomplished than building brick walls in the city, the once san- 

 guine improver often abates his energy, and loses his interest in the 

 .embellishment of his grounds, before his plans are half perfected. 



All this arises from a general disposition to underrate the diffi- 

 culty and cost of making plantations, and laying the groundwork 

 of a complete coxmtry residence. Landscape gardening, where all 

 its elements require to be newly arranged, where the scenery of a 



