STYLE OF THE HOUSE. 



11 



for that site wliicli on general grounds is considered the 

 hest, rather than that a site inconvenient in itself should 

 be inconsiderately chosen^ on account of some fancied 

 adaptation to a particular style of house. It appears 

 incongruous^ we might almost say absurd^ to place a 

 street-looking house in a Highland glen^ or a castellated 

 mansion on a plain as flat as a bowling-green. Such 

 mistakes are not unfrequent. We may add^ that the 

 external appearance should have such a relation to the 

 internal arrangements that the spectator on the outside 

 should have no room for mistake as to wliich is the 

 entrance front, which the drawing-room side, and what 

 portion of it is occupied by the ofi&ces and inferior 

 apartments. The public rooms should have some ex- 

 ternal uidicatioUj if not of their individual use, at least 

 of their general purpose. To the improver of the park 

 and pleasure-grounds the external appearance of the 

 house is always a matter of great interest, as the house 

 is the central point to which all liis operations are 

 referred, and from which they take as it were thefr 

 colour. A beautiful and well arranged group of build- 

 ings constituting the mansion-house create an interest 

 in his mind suggesting felicitous ideas, and stimulate 

 him to overcome difficulties, while a bald and shapeless 

 mass of brick or stone contains few or no elements of 

 inspiration. In regard to the former, his delight will 

 be to bring out and heighten the features of beauty ; in 

 the latter case, he will make it his duty, so far as it is in 

 his power, to diminish or relieve the actual inferiority 

 which unhappily exists. 



Arrangement of the Interior of the House. — It may 

 be supposed that the improver of a park and pleasm^e- 

 grounds has nothing to do with the interior of a man- 



