PART I. 



A COUNTRY RESIDENCE. 



611 



such persons feel their own disproportion to every thing around 

 them, and thence degenerate into incurable despondency*. 



It is almost unnecessary to add, that a situation naturally 

 beautiful can be rendered comparatively grand, where this 

 character is suited to the wishes and property of the proprietor; 

 or, that a situation partly picturesque and partly beautiful can 

 have either of the characters heightened. A cheerful place, on 

 the same principles, can be made more solitary, a wild one more 

 cultivated, or the contrary. The whole is easily done by a va- 

 ried application of the principles which constitute these dif- 

 ferences of expression. 



These general hints are equally applicable to the design of 

 principal, summer, or occasional residences, in these situations; 

 to the princely palace, the baronial castle, the elegant villa, 

 or the humble cottage. To treat of the particulars of each of 

 these, would be. to repeat much of what has been said in the 

 former book. The purpose in view, will ever be a sufficient 

 guide for a designer to make any little variation in the parts ne- 

 cessary to promote these ends. 



* " An air of greatness has always something melancholy in it (says Rousseau); 

 it leads us to consider the wretchedness of those who affect it. In the midst of these 

 grass plats and fine walks, the little individual does not grow greater; a tree twenty 

 feet high will shelter him as well as one of sixty ;- he never occupies a space of more 

 than three feet, and in the midst of his immense possessions is lost like a poor worm." 



Julia, or the New Eloisa, 317. 



