On the Choice of Style in Building a House 
agine. Let us for a moment conceive the site as a 
broad plain near a river. Some old Georgian Manor, 
Groombridge Place, let us say, seems perfectly 
suited to such a site. On the other hand, can we 
name any style that our amateur might have in mind 
that does not furnish admirable solutions of this very 
problem ? Even so animated a style as that of the 
early Renaissance in France gives us Josselyn, by 
its rolling river, or Chenonceaux, spanning the 
quiet waters of the Cher. Perhaps we might gener¬ 
alize by saying that long level lines harmonize best 
with such quiet stretches of landscape and that, 
with its inimitable hillside gardens such as Barn- 
cluith only to remember that the greatest charm 
of those places is the long level lines of their terraces 
rising one above another, and that Earlshall, a 
house that corresponds well with our imagined char¬ 
acter, is really set down in a perfectly level place. 
Thus, in the first effort to find an answer, we reach 
a result quite useless to our amateur. Let him get 
but a clever enough worker in archaeological leger¬ 
demain and his house shall look well (so it might 
seem) in any style he is pleased to name, and on any 
site that he is pleased to buy. Yet we know very 
GROOMBRIDGE PLACE. KENT. THE WEST BRIDGE 
therefore, we should choose some style in which they 
predominate were it not that we are dumfounded by 
the thought of Azay, with its strong verticals and its 
agitated roof lines, looking supremely beautiful in 
broad meadows with the folds of the Indre wrapped 
about its base. 
If our house is to he set upon some steep hillside, 
some cliffy place, surely we may find guidance in 
such a spot. Obviously, your quiet Georgian thing 
is out of keeping here. Strong upright lines, well 
marked parts, a vivacious sky line suggest themselves. 
St. Fagan’s near Llandaff, is quite as it should be. 
Quite naturally one’s mind runs off to Scotland 
well that it will not, for we have seen the experiment 
tried too often. 
NEIGHBORING BUILDINGS 
That, in the choice of style, we owe a duty to our 
neighbors is a fact too often ignored. If buildings 
exist which, when our own is finished, will group with 
it, we must not ignore them, for in such an instance 
our building is but a part of the whole composition 
and, unless we are utterly selfish, we must seek the 
best result for the whole rather than for a part. In 
Europe this thought obtains more acceptance than 
among us, for in many cities, municipal regulations 
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