196 PARKS AND PLEASURE-GROUNDS. 



ill the centre, or perhaps even in an extreme corner, 

 of the little domain. It ought to be remembered that 

 a house is always most effectively, and certainly to its 

 inmates most agreeably, seen, when it is so placed as to 

 enable the grounds to be decorated to the greatest ad- 

 vantage. In practice we have often felt the loss arising 

 from the absence of combined arrangement : we have 

 often been mortified to think that the result of our best 

 endeavours has been greatly inferior to what it might 

 have been, had the position of the house been more 

 happily selected, or could it have been altered even to 

 the distance of a few feet ; and any error committed in 

 this way we have found the more difficult to repair, or 

 even modify, the smaller the extent of the place. The 

 position of the house should be such, as not only to be 

 of easy external access, but to impart to it a considerable 

 degree of seclusion. The internal road, or approach, 

 should not be allowed to traverse much of the grounds. 

 The windows of the principal rooms should command 

 the best portion of the inner scenery, and anything 

 worth looking at without, that can be conveniently 

 brought into view. These conditions will generally place 

 the house at no great distance from what may be called 

 the entrance boundary. In all villa residences, whether 

 large or small, such a position of the house wiU enable 

 the proprietor to form a more varied disposition of his 

 grounds, than if it were set down in the centre, or 

 towards the more distant extremity. In a small place 

 the designer will, on this plan, have more space for useful 

 and ornamental purposes, while in a larger one he will 

 be able to make a more compact arrangement and a 

 more felicitous combination of his dressed grounds, 

 gardens, and offices, as well as to introduce a larger 



