662 THE CHOICE OF A SITUATION BOOK III. 



mile from the turnpike-road. Another residence I know in 

 Scotland, in the immediate neighbourhood of a large town. It 

 is highly romantic, though close to the post road. The house 

 is good ; but, being hidden in a hollow among trees, is from no 

 quarter seen till the visitor is close upon it. The proprietor 

 purchased this place, as being by common consent a very fine 

 one; but he having made his fortune by merchandize in the 

 town was (laudably) desirous to have other people know it (in 

 order perhaps to stimulate them to do likewise) ; and conse- 

 quently this recluse situation, both of the house and of his new 

 improvements, gives him continual pain, because he neither 

 sees nor is seen; and, however astonishing it may appear to some, 

 who do not make allowance for diversity of taste, he has begun 

 to build another house close by the margin of the public road. 

 I only mention these things with a view to shew, that had both 

 proprietors been duly aware of the object they had in view 

 when they proposed purchasing a residence, they might easily 

 have saved themselves no inconsiderable expense and anxiety, 

 and much discontentment; tempers of mind which when united 

 form the greatest of all human evils. 



Beside the foregoing reasons which induce me to make some 

 remarks on the choice of a country residence, and which refer 

 chiefly to the happiness of the individual, there are others 

 which concern the beauty of the country in general, and the 



