NATURAL CHARACTER OF THE GROUND. 63 



disumty may be the most favourable consummation that 

 can be realized. 



Natural Character of the Ground. — Most places have 

 intrinsically a natural character^ which is mainly de- 

 pendent on what may be called the contour of surface. 

 This, being a matter of great importance^ should receive 

 immediate and studious attention, both from the pro- 

 prietor and the artists who may aid him in erecting his 

 house and laying out his grounds. It is obvious that the 

 nature of the surface must materially affect the style 

 and position of the mansion-house, the adornment of 

 the dressed grounds, and the extent and character of the 

 park, approaches, and, in short, everything connected 

 with a country residence. Nature affords an almost 

 infinite variety of contours, each requiring or suggesting 

 a different treatment. For example, the house and its 

 environs may. occupy part of a dead flat, a level as 

 uniform as a painter^s canvas ; and this situation may be 

 accounted the least felicitous, or certainly the least sug- 

 gestive, of all, as it obhges the designer to create rather 

 than regulate a landscape. Again, the surface may be 

 concave, including the two sides of a valley of moderate 

 width j or it may be the lower part of the slope of a hilly 

 country, where it gradually descends into the plain — in 

 other words, one side of a broad valley. On the other 

 hand, some surfaces are convex — a long and shghtly 

 elevated ridge, we may suppose, or a lower spur of a 

 mountain or range of hills, or a bold promontory run- 

 ning into the sea. Once more, the house may be seated 

 on the shoulder formed by the junction of a primary and 

 a transverse or secondary valley, on a platform over a 

 lake or arm of the sea, or on the winding bank of an 

 inland stream or navigable river ; and of course the cha- 



