The Home-Grounds 
lish, and we should be doubly anxious to 
avoid them, for, it seems, our architects are 
succeeding better than the English in creat- 
ing that “ house beautiful” which must be 
the centre of the complex ultimate picture. 
If the taste of the writer whom I quote can 
be trusted, “ most of the houses built in our 
time” in England “ are so bad that even 
the best garden could not save them from 
contempt ; ’ ’ while, although we often build 
bad houses too, many of our country-homes 
are so very good that we think with a pang 
how much better yet they would be were 
their home-grounds properly planned and 
planted. 
How to plan and plant such grounds is a 
most interesting question, although, of course, 
varying with each individual case, it cannot 
be approached theoretically except in a very 
general way. Let us, however, suppose that 
a house has been advantageously placed and 
attractively designed, that it looks out upon 
a beautiful landscape, and that the interven- 
ing space is of such extent and character that 
it can be made an harmonious link between 
house and landscape, giving the house a 
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