location of Butlbfngs 107 



it granted that, except in very romantic situations, 

 all the rooms on the principal floor ought to range 

 on the same level, and that there must be a platform, 

 or certain space of ground, with a gentle descent from 

 the house every way. If the ground be naturally 

 convex, or what is generally called a knoll, the size 

 of the house must be adapted to the size of the 

 knoll : thus a small building only one hundred feet in 

 front may be placed upon such a hillock, with a 

 sufficient platform around it; but if a building three 

 hundred feet long should be required it is evident 

 that the crown of the hill must be taken off, and then 

 the shape of the ground becomes very different from 

 its original form : for although the small house would 

 have a sufficient platform, the large one will some- 

 times be on the brink of a very steep bank; and this 

 difficulty would be increased by raising the ground to 

 set the large house on the same level with the smaller 

 one. It therefore follows that if the house must 

 stand on a natural hillock, the building should not be 

 larger than its situation will admit; and where such 

 hillocks do not exist in places proper for a house in 

 every other respect, it is sometimes possible for art 

 to supply what nature seems to have denied. But 

 it is not possible in all cases ; a circumstance which 

 proves the absurdity of those architects who design 

 and plan a house, without any previous knowledge of 

 the situation or shape of the ground on which it is to 

 be built."' 



'Htimphry Repton, Art of Landscape Gardening, chap, iii., p. 28. 



