292 
LANDSCAPE GARDENING. 
to revert to the approach over which I passed so rapidly yesterday, and 
which consequently was passed without making such remarks as were 
requisite thereon. Nor could I have then been able to describe it as 
it really is, without the information which I now possess, as conveyed 
to me by my good friend in conversation last night. 
The London gate, or principal entrance to the house, was placed 
where it is, because the turnpike road, which passes through a part of 
the estate, makes, in that place, the nearest appulse to the mansion. 
Another thing, that particular spot was chosen because it lies con¬ 
siderably lower than the site of the house, and thereby allowed a 
gently rising line to be fixed on for the carriage road, which is always 
a desirable circumstance in approaching a mansion. The architecture 
of'the lodge partakes intentionally of that of the house, though in a 
properly subdued degree. Nothing can be more preposterous than a 
splendid entrance-gate to a mansion of less decorated character. The 
first seems contrived to please or astonish the high-road passenger, or 
to raise high expectations in the mind of a visiter, only the more keenly 
to disappoint him on his arrival at, perhaps, a plain brick building of 
no high architectural pretension. Such discrepancy has been taste¬ 
fully avoided at this place. A single comfortable lodge for the gate¬ 
keeper was also preferred to a pair of lodges for one family : a useless 
sacrifice to the love of symmetry, most unnecessarily, if not absurdly 
erected at many country seats, and even villas, in this kingdom. Such 
erections only gave cause for the current taunt that so and so's lodges 
were like tea-canisters, “ green and bohea,” as well in form as in 
diminutive size. The presence of hardy exotic trees as an accompani¬ 
ment to the lodge, is also quite appropriate, insomuch as it is a 
“recognition of art;’’ that is, an inferred acknowledgment that the 
park has been enclosed and embellished by labour ; and that all the 
dispositions within have been or are the results of study and design. 
This becomes more and more apparent as we proceed. The line of the 
carriage road is one of those dispositions, and does not deviate much 
from a right line drawn from the outer gate to that of the court-yard. 
It certainly appears to trend away to the right at the point where we 
first see the house; but it is not more than what a skilful coachman 
would choose to take in order to set down at the north portico. Had 
it been carried more to the right, it would have passed through some 
beautiful woods, and over some fine verdant lawns; but it would have 
been unnecessarily lengthened. Had it swept boldly down into the 
valley on the left, it would have had two dreaded inconveniences, viz. 
descending one eminence, merely for the sake of ascending another. 
Besides, a carriage road along a valley cannot be sufficiently concealed; 
