262 



PARKS AND PLEASURE-GROUNDS. 



gardens and dressed grounds, should be considered 

 together, and mutually adjusted to each other. "When 

 the architect is the only person consulted about the 

 position of the house, unless he has a more than ordi- 

 nary knowledge of landscape-gardening, the only ele- 

 ment he will take into consideration will be the 

 securing of a site which, according to his ideas, will 

 best exhibit his powers of architectural design. Most 

 probably the house will be so placed, and the approach 

 so contrived, as to make a decided impression on stran- 

 gers and other visitors. The place, indeed, will often 

 be little more than an inclosed approach to a house in 

 the center, or perhaps even in an extreme corner of 

 the little domain. It ought to be remembered, that a 

 house is always most effectively, and certainly to its 

 inmates most agreeably seen, when it is so placed as 

 to enable the grounds to be decorated to the greatest 

 advantage. In practice, we have often felt the loss 

 arising from the absence of combined arrangement; 

 we have often been mortified to think that the result 

 of our best endeavors has been greatly inferior to what 

 it might have been, had the position of the house been 

 more happily selected, or could it have been altered 

 even to the distance of a few feet ; and any error com- 

 mitted in this way we have found the more difficult to 

 repair, or even modify, the smaller the extent of the 

 place. The position of the house should be such as 

 not only to be of easy external access, but to impart to 

 it a considerable degree of seclusion. The internal 

 road, or approach, should not be allowed to traverse 

 much of the grounds. The windows of the principal 

 rooms should command the best portion of the inner 

 scenery, and any thing worth looking at without, that 



