40 
BUILDING SITES 
After all, the vast majority of building sites are pretty nearly 
level surfaces, and if we will but learn to develop all the beauty 
that such are capable of, there will be little cause to envy the 
Fig. 9. 
possession of more varied surfaces. Most of the designs which 
follow will be for such places, as they can be planned with more 
certainty of being useful to a great number of persons. Varied 
surfaces require such thorough knowledge of each peculiarity of 
the ground, the drainage required, the difference of levels, the na¬ 
ture of the trees, or rocks, or water, that may be upon it, that their 
features must not only be seen, but carefully surveyed and platted, 
in order to be planned to advantage; and even then the skill of an 
artist-gardener will be essential to their judicious improvement, 
unless the proprietor is a person of unusual taste in such matters. 
Many persons involve themselves in useless expenditures on such 
sites from misdirected zeal for improvement, and ignorance of what 
not to attempt. Uneven sites also necessitate greater skill in the 
architect, in adapting the house to the ground. It is by such adap¬ 
tations, happily executed, that the difference between architects of 
fine native taste and culture, and mere routine designers, is occa¬ 
sionally illustrated. And the same faculty for the happy adapta¬ 
tion of one mode of planting or another to suit different ground 
surfaces, to develop the best effects of existing trees, to turn a rock 
or a brook to the best account, is that which distinguishes the 
artistic from the commonplace planter. 
