204 



PARKS AND PLEASURE-GROUNDS. 



increases,, the difficulties in regard to privacy diminisli, as 

 there is room for enlarged masses of trees and shrubs, 

 and the Avhole place naturally assumes the character of 

 a common country residence. 



(2.) TTie Approach. — As remarked in the previous 

 section of this chapter, small residences seldom require 

 an approach of any great length. The smaller the 

 quantity of the ground occupied in this way, the greater 

 will be the extent capable of being devoted to usefal 

 and ornamental purposes. We do not say that the 

 approach to a small residence may not be made in some 

 measure ornamental ; but in its formation its peculiar 

 use ought to be principally kept in view, and any deco- 

 ration connected with it should be made subsidiary to 

 the adornment of the other parts of the grounds. We 

 should be disposed to line them with groups of shrubs, 

 or to screen them with hedges of evergreens, so that 

 they should not interfere with the general privacy of the 

 place. It will be found that the approach is seldom 

 used as a walk or lounge by the members of the family, 

 even when it is not exposed to the external world. In 

 a former page it was stated that in some admirable 

 villas there is no approach, in the proper sense of the 

 word, — that its place is sometimes taken by a gravelled 

 court or covered way; — and without doubt the advan- 

 tages of such arrangements, if they do not supersede 

 the necessity of an approach altogether, certainly reduce 

 it to a minimum. Of course, such expedients can be 

 adopted only in favourable circumstances. There may be 

 elements in the size of the place, or in the slope of the 

 ground, or in the position of the most favourable site, 

 which demand an approach in the ordinary form ; still 

 the line leading from the entrance lodge to the honse 



