HOW TO MAKE A COUNTRY PLACE. 
437 
SECTION II. 
HOW TO MAKE A COUNTRY PLACE. 
On the Continent and in England, it is rarely that a 
new place is made from the beginning. The taste for 
country life having existed as long as England herself 
has existed, the whole kingdom may be said to be one 
universal garden ; all who can, from the sovereign to 
the cit, live, at least some portion of the year, in the 
country ; in fact, one’s respectability is not complete, 
unless he is a landed proprietor. If, as we said in our 
preface, there are in England 20,000 country houses, 
each larger than the White House, at Washington, 
there are more than twice that number, a great deal 
smaller. 
Places change hands, but few new places are made. 
This is not the case in this country. We have but few 
old estates, and those, whenever offered for sale, are 
generally so run down and desolate as to afford little 
attraction to the beginner of country life ; besides which 
the universal delusion among us is that we can make a 
country place, cheaper than we can buy one. While 
we are alarmed at a sum total, we easily reconcile our- 
selves to progressive expenditure, until, in the end, we 
realize “ that fools build houses and wise men live in 
them.” 
This is one great reason, we have always thought, why 
makers of new places so soon become discontented and 
discouraged, and ready to sell out at a sacrifice. A 
man who hesitates to give $20,000, or $100,000 for a 
