THE PLEASURE-GROUND VILLA. 



211 



to residences of from three to ten acres, we stiaU endea- 

 vour to keep this distinction in view. When the domain 

 extends to twelve, fourteen, or twenty acres, it may be 

 treated rather as a park than as a villa.* 



The Pleasure-Ground Villa. — In this, the more orna- 

 mental form of a minor residence, the whole of the ground 

 not covered by the house and offices is taken up with the 

 gardens and dressed grounds. The lawns are, speaking 

 comparatively, of considerable extent; the groups and 

 clumps of trees and shrubs are very much as are common 

 in pleasure-grounds of moderate dimensions, and the 

 execution of the whole is careful and unobtrusively 

 elaborate. 



The first object aimed at is, by means of a skilful 

 distribution of the principal masses of trees and shrubs, 

 to conceal the kitchen garden and offices, and more par- 

 ticularly the boundaries of the place. The approach, 

 too, should be screened or masked. The next object is 

 to lay down one or two of the principal lawns, so as to 

 have the appearance of considerable extent as seen from 

 the windows of the public rooms. It is possible, by 

 means of masses and groups of shrubs, to convey the 

 idea that these lawns branch off indefinitely, while other 

 minor lawns, separated by the interposition of shrubs, 

 may seem to be connected with the former by smaller 

 breadths of grass. While the principal lawns have for 

 the most part a clothed aspect, it is desirable that one of 

 them should be made to show a large extent of length 

 and breadth of grass, wholly fr'ee from the interruptions 

 which numerous flower-beds and single trees and shrubs 

 injudiciously placed are sure to produce. In the margins 

 of the lawns, and especially of the principal one just al- 

 luded to, the masses of trees should be so formed as to 



