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tinguished from the neighbouring farms, 

 not by the extent of laMm, or the variety 

 of landscape, but by the quantity of courts 

 surrounded by barns, stables, and offices, 

 through which the approach was made: 

 and as our ancestors thought a certain 

 degree of gloom and confinement neces- 

 sary to greatness, the views from the win- 

 dows were confined by lofty walls, sur- 

 rounding quadrangular courts or kitchen 

 gardens, which being felt as objects of 

 the greatest convenience, were deemed 

 the most proper objects of sight from the 

 principal apartments. This taste in gar- 

 dening continued long after the vaulted 

 kitchen, the buttery-hatch, the carved 

 cellar door, and other marks of hospitable 

 splendour, had been banished by modern 

 improvements in architecture. It is now 

 acknowledged that gloom is not neces- 

 sary to magnificence; that liberty is not 

 incompatible with greatness ; and that 

 convenience is not the sole object of or- 

 nament; for though such things as are 

 useful may sometimes be ornamental, it 

 does not follow, that ornaments must 



