PARKS AND PLEASURE-GROUNDS. 



and from which they take, as it were, their color. A 

 beautiful and well arranged group of buildings con- 

 stituting' the mansion-house, create an interest in his 

 mind suggesting felicitous ideas, and stimulate him to 

 overcome difficulties, while a bald and shapeless mass 

 of brick or stone contains few or no elements of inspi- 

 ration. In regard to the former, his delight will be to 

 bring out and heighten the features of beauty ; in the 

 latter case, he will make it his duty, so far as it is in 

 his power, to diminish or relieve the actual inferiority 

 which unhappily exists. 



Note. — For a more systematic understanding of the 

 subject, we regret that our author had not postponed 

 the discussion of the "Style of the House " until after 

 he had disposed of the " Pleasure Grounds" and 

 "Parks," which comprise the next two chapters. 

 These being discussed and understood in their several 

 aspects, the " House" would more naturally follow, in 

 its appropriate style and arrangement, in keeping with 

 the grounds which are to embrace it. In other words, 

 a house can be much better fitted to the park, than the 

 various features of the park can be moulded to fit the 

 house, let its style, in itself considered, be ever so in- 

 viting. Parks, in America, have, practically, a some- 

 what different signification than they have in England. 

 In England, almost every landed proprietor who in- 

 dulges in the luxury of a park, has a large agricul- 

 tural estate adjoining, usually farmed by tenants, 

 together with a home farm of more or less extent, for 

 the accommodation of his household, and to which the 

 park is an object of convenience, in grazing his herds, 

 at the same time that it ministers to the gratification 

 of his tastes and his luxury. Such appropriations 



