168 LANDSCAPE GARDENING. 



are few new sites where there is not naturally a *' blind side" indi- 

 cated ; a side where there is a fringe of wood, or some natural dis- 

 position of surface, which pointe it out as the spot where the kitchen 

 offices should be placed, in order to have the utmost shelter and 

 privacy, — at the same time leaving the finer glades, openings, and 

 views, for the more refined, social and beautiful portions of the resi- 

 dence. Wherever these indications are wanting, they must be 

 created, by artificial planting of belts, and groups of trees and 

 shrubs, — not in stiff and formal lines like fences, but in an irregular 

 and naturally varied manner, so as to appear as if foj'med of a natu- 

 ral copse, or, rather, so as not to attract special attention at alL 



We are induced to insist upon this point the more strenuously, 

 because, along with the taste for the architecture of Pericles (may 

 we indulge the hope that he is not permitted to behold the Greek 

 architecture of the new world !) which came into fashion in this 

 (jountry fifteen or twenty years ago, came also the fashion of sweep- 

 ing away every thing that was not temple-like about the house. Far 

 from recognizing that man lives a domestic life, — that he cooks, 

 washes, bakes and churns in his country house, and, therefore, that 

 kitchen offices (tastefully concealed if you please, but still ample) 

 are a necessary, and therefore truthful part of his dwelliUgj-^they 

 went upon the principle that if man had fallen, and was no longer 

 one of the gods, he might still live in a temple dedicated to the im- 

 mortals. A clear space on all sides — ^pediments at each end, and 

 perhaps a colonnade all round ; this is the undomestic, uncomfortable 

 ideal of half the better country houses in America. 



Having fixed upon and arranged the blind side of the house— 

 which, of course, will naturally be placed so as to connect itself 

 directly with the stable and other out-buildings, — the next point of 

 attack is the kitchen, garden. This is not so easily disposed of as 

 many imagine. All persons of good taste agree that however neces- 

 sary, satisfactory, and pleasant a thing a good kitchen garden is, it 

 is not, sesthetioally, considered a beautiful thing ; and it never accords 

 well with the ornamental portions of a country place, where the latter 

 is large enough to have a lawn, pleasure-grounds, or other portions 

 that give it an ornamental character. The fruit trees (and we in- 

 clude now, for the sake of conciseness, kitchen and fruit garden), 



