THE FINE APPROACH. 



33 



with good effect; and it may be employed without 

 injury to the scenery when the approach passes through 

 a wood. In our judgment nothing is more miserable 

 than the taste which converts the bare ill-grown trees of 

 a hedgerow, which has bordered some parish road^ into 

 an avenue through whose narrow irregular line an 

 approach is made to pass. Certainly these stunted 

 deformities should be prevented from dividing the land- 

 scape by the dividing stroke of the woodman^s axe. 



The Fine Approach. — The species of access to a man- 

 sion-house which we have ventured to call a fine approach 

 is seldom fomid connected with large residences or 

 extensive estates, but not mifrequently with such small 

 places as require only one approach and a back road. 

 We may describe it as a carriage-way from the entrance 

 to the house, so laid out as to display all the principal 

 views and leading beauties of the place. It leaves 

 nothing worth looking at to be seen from the windows, 

 and it renders aU farther inspection from walks or 

 gardens unnecessary. It is in itself a thing of primary 

 importance. Indeed, nothing can rival its ambition, 

 except, perhaps, the vanity of the individual to whom it 

 owes its formation. These approaches are often unne- 

 cessarily prolonged. We have seen them following the 

 boundary of the property to a considerable distance 

 from the entrance, the only objects between them and 

 the pubhc road being the park wall and a belt of shrubs 

 quite insufficient to deaden the noise of carriages out- 

 side. In other places they may be seen extending for a 

 mile or more through a narrow stripe of trees planted on 

 the sloping banks and knolls, on the side of a small 

 valley or of a wide glen along which the public road 

 passes. This is, indeed, the favourite position of the fine 



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