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PLANS OF RESIDENCES 
beauty of the others j and all succeed, by a harmonious improve- 
ment of their grounds on a common plan, to realize a great deal of 
beauty for which each one pays but a small share. Suppose the 
city-house number three were placed twenty feet nearer the street, 
it would then destroy the opportunity for the fine lawn on the line 
A, B j its blank side-walls would be marplots of the block on both 
sides ; and its front-porch and bay-window, which now have charm- 
ing outlooks in each direction, would then have little in view but 
the sidewalk and the street. By placing the house back on a line 
with the others, the owner has therefore made a great profit for 
himself, and conferred an equal one on his neighbors. Let him 
carry the same good sense a little farther. He has not cared to 
have much ground, but that strip twenty-five feet in width in front 
of his house must, in some way, be made creditable to the neigh- 
borhood. If it were filled with trees, shrubs, or flowers, these 
would destroy his grass-plat and outlooks, and his neighbors would 
have no considerable length of grassy ground ; it would be selfish, 
after securing pleasant views from his bay-window over his neigh- 
bors’ improvements, to so plant his own lot that their views would 
be destroyed. We would therefore suggest to him not to plant a 
tree, or a shrub, in front of his steps ; but to place in the centre of 
the space in front of the bay-window a vase for flowers, of the most 
beautiful and substantial form that he can afford, and make it his 
“ family pride ” to see that the filling of the vase and of the small 
flower-beds in front and behind it is as perfect a piece of art as 
possible. The plain lawn surrounding them, and the absence of 
any attempt at rural effect in front of this city-house, will alone 
give it an air of distinguished simplicity, while these characteristics 
will make its lawn, and vase, and flowers, a harmonious part of the 
common improvement of the whole block-front. We thus see how 
the owner of the narrowest lot of the group holds, as it were, the 
key to the best improvement of the block, and by the use of gen- 
erous good sense, or the want of it, can consummate or mar the 
beauty of a whole neighborhood of grounds. 
On lot I, the house and grounds resemble those shown on 
Plate VI, though they are not identical. Besides the fruit trees 
in the back-yard it should have no other trees, except one of 
