XI. 



HOW TO AERANGE COUNTRY PLACES. 



Marcb, 1860. 



HOW to lay out a coimtoy place ? That is a question about 

 whioli we and our readers might have many a long conversa- 

 tion, if we could be brought on familiar terms, colloquially speak- 

 ing, with all parts of the Union where rural improvements are going 

 on. As it is, we shall touch on a few leading points this month, 

 which may be considered of universal application. 



These cardinal points within the bounds of a country residence, 

 are (taking health and pleasant locality for granted), convenience, 

 comfort — or social enjoyment — and beauty ; and we shall touch on 

 them in a very rambling manner. 



Innumerable are the mistakes of those novices in forming coun- 

 try places, who reverse the order of these three conditions, — and 

 placing beauty first (as, intellectually considered, it deserves to be), 

 leave the useful, convenient, and comfortable, pretty mnch to them- 

 selves ; or, at least, consider them entitled only to a second place in 

 their consideration. In the country places which they create, the 

 casual visitor may be struck with many beautiful effects ; but when 

 a trifling observation has shown him that this beauty is not the re- 

 sult of a harmony between the real and the ideal, — or^ in other 

 words, between the surface of things intended to be seen and the 

 things themselves, as they minister to our daily wants, — ^then all the 

 pleasure vanishes, and the opposite feeling takes its place. 



To begin at the very root of things, the most defective matter in 

 laying out our country places (as we know from experience), is the 



