226 
PLANS OF RESIDENCES 
vases, and the management of the vines and plants in the grape- 
houses, all have a tendency to beget a craving for more room ■ for 
similar pleasures and more beautiful creations on a larger scale. 
Mr. Smith, the owner of the stores and the double-house, has been 
obliged to buy the lot back of the alley (ioo x 185 feet) to get 
room for his stable, vehicle, and man-servant. Not being in a 
street where property is used for business, or popular for residences, 
he buys it for a small part of what lots on the east street are worth; 
and the lot is first used for a horse and cow pasture, or run-ground, 
in connection with the stable. Now let us suppose Mr. Smith is 
one of those good specimens of business-men whose refined tastes 
develop as their means increase, and that he longs, and that his 
good family seconds the longing, for those lovely stretches of lawn 
flecked with shadows of trees, margined with shrubberies, and 
sparkling with flowers, that some friend’s acre has enabled him to 
display; that the family envy the possession of fine croquet grounds 
where children, youth, and old people are alike merry in the open 
summer air with the excitement of the battles of the balls; that 
they desire some better place than the street to air the little chil¬ 
dren, and to stroll with family familiarity on fair summer days, and 
evenings, and sociable Sundays. 
To obtain all these pleasant features of a home without going 
into the country, or exchanging the home in the heart of the village 
for a new one farther off, or giving up the convenient proximity to 
his business which Mr. Smith has always enjoyed, we propose to 
tunnel the alley , and to convert the cow-pasture-lot into a little 
pleasure-ground, as shown on the plan. This project, however, pre¬ 
supposes that the soil is naturally so gravelly as to be self-draining, 
so that water might never rest in the tunnel, or else that drainage 
for the bottom of the tunnel can be effected by a sewer in the alley 
beneath it, or not far off. 
It may be asked—“why tunnel rather than bridge the alley?” 
The reasons are conclusive in favor of the tunnel. A bridge over 
the alley must be high enough to allow a load of hay to pass under. 
The great height would make it a laborious ascent and descent. 
In going from one piece of embellished ground to the other it is 
precisely to avoid the sight of the alley that we want bridge or 
