20 



PARKS AND PLEAStlRE-GROUNDS. 



residence. It is probably sufficient, in almost all cases, 

 to allow it a third-rate position in tbe scale of import- 

 ance. The site of the house, as related to the park 

 generally and to the leading road of the district, clearly 

 ought to hold the first place, and the second may be 

 safely conceded to the pleasure-grounds and flower- 

 gardens. These points, indeed, should not be deter- 

 mined irrespective of the approach, a not uncommon 

 mistake in the opposite direction; but in forming a 

 general idea of the whole place, and particularly in the 

 construction of the roads, care should be taken that the 

 site of the house and the seclusion of the adjacent 

 grounds should not be sacrificed, as they too often are, 

 to the vanity of having a fine approach. In most cases, 

 there is no great difficulty in making a good approach, 

 at least when the house, offices, gardens, and pleasure- 

 grounds have been properly arranged ; but when these 

 objects have been ill-assorted, the work is far from being 

 an easy one, especially when the house has been set down 

 with its principal entrance to the south, when it should 

 have been to the north, or towards the east instead of 

 the west ; or when the kitchen or other offices are 

 attached to the wrong wing of the house. Such mis- 

 arrangements may be said to be of daily occurrence, and 

 they often present almost insuperable obstacles in the 

 way of properly laying out the various parts of the 

 grounds. These arise irom the circumstance that no 

 definite plan of the place has been formed, nor even a 

 general idea of it conceived, tiU after the site of the 

 house has been fixed, and perhaps the work of building 

 has been partially, if not comx3letely, executed. The 

 proprietor then begins to think how he is to get to his 

 house j he at length perceives difficulties in the forma- 



