178 HOW TO PLAN THE HOME GROUNDS 



ward, we may feel triumphantly are far better than 

 those of the flat and uninteresting plain. The problem 

 to be overcome may be difficult, but it is not surprisingly 

 difficult, and is, without doubt, well worth the trouble of 

 an intelligent study that will satisfactorily develop its 

 possibilities for reasonable comfort and beauty. After 

 all has been done, however, that can be done by the 

 most careful study of grades, there still remain spots 

 that cannot, by any possible contrivance, be used for 

 living purposes, unless it be proposed to assume the 

 habits of an eagle on a crag. The only thing that can be 

 done is to at least delight the eye on these inaccessible 

 spots with a thick covering of trees, shrubs, and vines. 



A little open meadow and moderately sloping hillside 

 is retained near the entrance, where only is to be noticed 

 any considerable stretch of turf for greensward. 



The whole region is a mountain hillside, with trees, 

 shrubs, and vines largely clothing its slopes, and there- 

 fore the intention is evident everywhere of supplementing 

 the work of Nature in the same spirit, but with a dis- 

 tinct view of making tasteful and comfortable human 

 homes within its confines. With this object in view, 

 the roads are built solidly, with macadam foundations, 

 and graveled, and all connected by solid stone gutters 

 and road basins with the general drainage system. Oc- 

 casional hillside flights of steps are introduced, to reach 

 house sites that a carriage may not attempt to approach. 

 Retaining walls along roads also have been found neces- 

 sary. But the unique, and specially important, adorn- 

 ment of the territory is the plantations that are every- 

 where carved out on a distinct system. They are really 

 a development of the irregular and natural masses of 

 foliage that already exist on the place, keeping dis- 



