OF BUILDING 109 



XLV 

 OF BUILDING 



HOUSES are built to live in, and not to look on ; therefore 

 let use be preferred before uniformity, except where both 

 may be had. Leave the goodly fabrics of houses, for 

 beauty only, to the enchanted palaces of the poets ; who 

 build them with small cost. He that builds a fair house 

 upon an ill seat, committeth himself to prison. Neither 

 do I reckon it an ill seat only where the air is unwhole- 

 some ; but likewise where the air is unequal ; as you shall 

 see many fine seats set upon a knap of ground, environed 

 with higher hills round about it ; whereby the heat of the 

 sun is pent in, and the wind gathereth as in troughs ; so as 

 you shall have, and that suddenly, as great diversity of 

 heat and cold as if you dwelt in several places. Neither is 

 it ill air only that maketh an ill seat, but ill ways, ill 

 markets : and, if you will consult with Momus, ill neigh- 

 bours. I speak not of many more ; want of water ; want 

 of wood, shade, and shelter; want of fruitfulness, and 

 mixture of grounds of several natures ; want of prospect ; 

 want of level grounds; want of places at some near dis- 

 tance for sports of hunting, hawking, and races ; too near 

 the sea, too remote ; having the commodity of navigable 

 rivers, or the discommodity of their overflowing ; too far 

 of7 from great cities, which may hinder business, or 

 too near them, which lurcheth all provisions, and maketh 

 every thing dear ; where a man hath a great living laid 

 together, and where he is scanted : all of which, as it is 

 impossible perhaps to find together, so it is good to know 

 them, and think of them, that a man may take as many 

 as he can ; and if he have several dwellings, that he sort 

 them so, that what he wanteth in the one he may find 

 in the other. Lucullus answered Pompey well; who, 

 when he saw his stately galleries, and rooms so large and 

 lightsome, in one of his houses, said, 'Surely an excel- 

 lent place for summer, but how do you in winter?' 

 Lucullus answered, 'Why, do you not think me as wise 



