12 



PARKS AND PLEASUKE-GROUNDS. 



sion, and it may be admitted that lie is only indirectly 

 concerned with it ; still both its external and internal 

 arrangements are to him matters of considerable import- 

 ance, and come in for a share of his attention, as they 

 give a character, or at least impart a colouring, to the 

 scenery which he may endeavour to create in the vicinity. 

 We therefore deem it proper to offer a few hints on this 

 subject. Every well-arranged mansion-house, whether 

 large or small, should have two principal fronts, — the 

 entrance front, and the drawing-room front. Of the 

 first, the main door and hall form the principal features, 

 as the drawing-room and other public rooms should do 

 of the second. These fronts should be on opposite sides 

 of the house, or, if this arrangement cannot be adopted, 

 they should be at right angles to each other, with an end 

 window or two belonging to one of the public rooms 

 opening on the entrance front. The former arrangement 

 is calculated to impart to these rooms a proper degree of 

 seclusion, and to keep them, as it were, within the best 

 portion of the dressed grounds, which should be on the 

 drawing-room side of the house. Another portion of 

 the interior not unfrequently interferes with the privacy 

 of the dressed grounds, — viz., the servants^ apartments. 

 These, when on the ground-floor and under the public 

 rooms, overlook the pleasure-grounds in a most un- 

 desirable manner. To obviate this inconvenience, the 

 clumsy expedient of sinking them, in whole or in part, 

 below the external level of the ground, is often resorted 

 to ; but such apartments, even when famished with an 

 open area in front of them, have always a damp, un- 

 healthy look, and not only give to the edifice a mean 

 appearance, but also seem to indicate that from some 

 defect in its construction, it had been necessary to stick 



