2 HOW TO PLAN THE HOME GROUNDS 



pensable to the restful and pastoral effect whicli should 

 be sought as essential to agreeable home grounds. 



The boundaries of home grounds or village lots count 

 much in the successful treatment of the territories. The 

 shape of the plot should best be oblong or narrow on the 

 street, or square, the latter form being preferable be- 

 cause it admits of more convenient arrangement and 

 subdivision. In the first case, one can lay down as a 

 rule that the lot mth seventy-five feet along the street 

 and one hundred feet back can be treated with better 

 effect than if one hundred feet be taken on the street 

 and seventy-five feet back. Of course, it is always possible 

 to meet any kind of difficulty in the shape of a lot, only 

 it is wise not to court difficulties if possible. 



More important than the shape of the lot, we shall 

 find, is the character of adjoining property, such as low 

 marshy lands, undrained stables, and all kinds of nui- 

 sances to the eye, or ear, or nostrils. On the other 

 hand, one might well wish to be neighbored by a long- 

 tried friend, a noble grove of trees or a beautiful lawn. 

 The neighboring of a sunset sky over lake or ocean, or 

 of a wind-swept field of grass, increases many fold the 

 value of a building lot. 



The interior of the place should be considered with 

 the same view to securing simplicity and breadth, for 

 trees will grow large, and houses, in order to carry out 

 the designer's ideas, often take much space. The terri- 

 tory of the home grounds, with the depressions and ele- 

 vations, must naturally be arranged with room enough 

 for breadth to abide. Tangles, so lovely in wild nature, 

 would be all out of place. They would shut out the 

 light and air, and give a sense of too much confinement ; 

 they would bury the house, and neutralize that sense of 



