CHAPTER XV. 
PLANS OP RESIDENCES AND GROUNDS. 
B EFORE proceeding to examine the plans, the reader is 
requested to observe the symbols used, as shown on the 
preceding page. 
We desire also to offer a few preliminary explana¬ 
tions. First, every intelligent reader knows that no two building 
lots are often exactly alike in any respect. Not only in size and 
form, but in elevation, in shape of surface, in the exposure of the 
front to the north, east, south, or west, or intermediate points; in 
the presence and location of growing trees, large or small; in the 
nature of the improvements to the right or left, in front or rear; 
in the aspect of the surrounding country or city; in the connec¬ 
tions with adjacent streets or roads ; in the prospective changes 
that time is likely to bring which will affect their improvement for 
good or ill ;—all these things are external conditions as similar in 
the main as the colors of the kaleidoscope, and as invariably differ¬ 
ent from each other i?i their combinations. Not only these external 
conditions, but an equally numerous throng of circumstantial con¬ 
ditions connected with the tastes, the means, the number, and the 
business of the occupants, tend to render the diversities of our 
