smoke and other nuisances. But if the parts over which smoke would thus frequently travel are elevated, the atmosphere will not be so much polluted as it would were they low and flat. Hilly tracts, again, as previously mentioned, are not so liable to be affected with dense and disagreeable fogs.

Generally, the south side of a town is decidedly the warmest, and the west and north-west sides the healthiest; though of course there will be exceptions in particular cases. A part that has some undulation, and is well drained, and tolerably furnished with trees, will usually be healthier, and will certainly conduce most to comfort.

Regarding the most desirable aspect for a place, more positive rules can be given. A slope that inclines to the south-east is unquestionably the best for every purpose. It is more healthy, more cheerful, better suited for the growth of plants, drier, and warmer than any other that can be chosen.

A garden that has not a good aspect is seldom enjoyable. It will usually be damp, and cold; the walks mossy, and the plants unhealthy. It will be wanting in the great charm produced by light and shade. Flowers will not develop themselves freely and finely; nor will fruits be abundant or good. In fact, with a bad aspect, the beauty of a garden, and the pleasure it produces, will be greatly diluted and marred.

scene.

It is true that, in looking over an extensive landscape, the effects are sometimes heightened and improved, and the observer is able to examine them better, when the sun is behind him, and he can stand in the shade to scrutinise a richly illumined Every feature thus becomes more distinct; the eye is not pained or dazzled; and the atmosphere appears clearer. But the benefit obtained by these results would never atone for the great disadvantages of a northerly aspect; and they can, moreover, often be realised from the entrance front of a place, without any sacrifice of aspect. Besides, a scene that has every individual feature of it lighted up by sunshine, is not nearly so beautiful as one in which the lights and shadows are happily mingled.

9. To render a place of residence thoroughly delightful, it should not be destitute of shelter; and where this exists naturally, or is already provided, the spot will be all the more eligible as the site for a house and garden.

If a good range of hills extend along the north, north-east,

and north-west sides of a plot, and at no great distance from it, it will be admirably sheltered. No position could be warmer or more favourable than one on a slope or at a short distance from the base of such a range of hills. They will ward off all the worst and most unhealthy winds to which this country is exposed, without at all interfering with the action of the sun at any time of the day, or during any part of the year. For it may

be observed that, except in a spot that is liable to strong currents, the injurious winds are the north-east and north-west. A purely north wind is rarely violent; and south-west winds, though prevalent and furious, and bringing great quantities of rain in many places, are commonly balmy and healthful, and travel in particular channels, or strike detrimentally on those points alone that are unduly exposed to them.

In hilly countries, there is often a considerable depression or hollow in the face of the hills, caused by the projection of large arms or buttresses on either side; and the basin thus formed, if it front any point near the south, will yield a particularly warm and snug retreat for a house and homestead.

Masses of well-grown trees on the northerly sides of a place would be an excellent substitute for hills, and may occasionally be more pleasant and congenial. Plantations are always highly effective in regard to shelter, and it is a great point to find them already on the ground.

Independently of shelter, however, if trees have not been drawn up and spoiled by neglect, there can scarcely be too many of them on any spot intended for habitation. Nothing is easier than to thin out and remove them; and there is always a great pleasure resulting from the formation of openings through old plantations, to get views of the outside country. If the trees be not unhealthy, therefore, and are well supplied with branches, the more abundantly they exist, the greater will be the capabilities of a place. Large or fine trees and shrubs are also valuable in destroying all semblance of newness or rawness about a garden, in giving an appearance of age and cultivation, in shutting out bad objects, in improving the outlines and grouping of new plantations, and in supplying an increased amount and play of agreeable shadow.

Available outbuildings, or walls, or fences of any kind, should not be wholly disregarded. A good existing fence, especially if

it be a hedge where such a thing would be wanted, will be of the greatest use, as it would take many years to rear it. But it is better that a plot should be wholly without every description of appurtenance, than that things of an improper class, or bad construction, or in a wrong position, should exist to tempt the purchaser to retain them; as the greatest dissatisfaction is commonly experienced from patching up an old house or other building that is not strictly suitable, and which can never afterwards be made so. It is far more pleasurable, and, in the end, more economical, to arrange and erect everything anew, than to submit to great inconveniences for the sake of preserving some relic of things that actually exist, because they happen to be ancient. Hence, too, it is better to be without old trees altogether in the vicinity of a house than to have them thoroughly in the wrong places, where they will only prove sources of perpetual annoyance and regret.

10. Whatever kind of view is sought to be obtained from a place, this can be best compassed where it is situated on a slight eminence; and the rule will hold good, whether the view be one of the garden itself, as seen from the house, of natural scenery, of an arable and agricultural district, of other estates, of a river, or lake, or the sea, of distant hills, or of good individual objects.

In relation to the garden itself, as viewed from the house, some modification of the principle may perhaps seem necessary. Although, however, a place, the ground of which rises as it recedes from the house, will appear larger, because more of its surface will be seen, yet the reverse of this would be the case when looked at from the outside of the garden, or from any point just within its boundary; and a slope from the house gives to the latter an appearance of dryness and importance, and

Fig. 1.

enables one to bring in the exterior landscape more easily. This may be better understood by reference to the section fig. 1,

which represents a piece of land the form of which is entirely convex, with the house on its summit. If the ground also rises in a gentle bank, just towards the boundary, such a slope, being more perfectly seen from the house, will enlarge the apparent extent; the general section of such a plot being shown in fig. 2.

Fig. 2.

But any great amount of convexity in the surface of the ground, as it slopes from the house, would be an evil, because it would seriously foreshorten the whole, and reduce its size materially as seen from the windows. A very gentle slope, with only a small portion of roundness in it, will be preferable.

One of the chief desiderata in regard to the surface levels of a plot of land, is to obtain a good platform, which is tolerably flat, as a site for the house and garden. This will give the house the appearance of being more naturally placed, and will lighten the expense of earthwork and of foundations, while it will, in a hilly country, make the garden more comfortably accessible. As a general rule, too, the summit of a hill, if it be otherwise than a very low one, with a broad piece of tableland at the top, is not so eligible for a house as the face of an easy slope to the south. In the latter case, the hill itself will afford some degree of shelter, and of background, which, with the necessary planting, will soon give a new place a habitable look, such as scarcely any amount of growth in the trees would impart to the crown of a hill.

That the best views of things beyond a garden may be had from a partial elevation, will be too obvious to need enforcing. In regard to water, however, which forms such a beautiful and interesting addition to a landscape, a point of view considerably above its level will reveal its outline and extent more distinctly, and is therefore better adapted for large and bold sheets of it than for smaller lakes. Still, it will always be more pleasing

and comfortable to be a good deal above a piece of water, that it may seem in a valley, and that the garden may convey the impression of being elevated.

It is far from being desirable that only the features of Nature should be seen from a place. The better parts of detached neighbouring houses, good public buildings, places of worship, &c., will, if nicely brought into view, give an air of habitation and sociality to a district. Rows of houses, however, or masses of cottages, unless the latter be pleasing in themselves or picturesquely grouped, will be very unsightly and unsuitable constituents of a landscape. And a spot that overlooks a town, except partially, and from a height, and so as to catch merely the principal buildings, need never be sought. Still, glimpses of a navigable river, in the immediate vicinity of a large town, may, from the variety and motion of the craft employed upon it, give animation and beauty to a scene. So, likewise, a distant view of a town or of a portion of it, where there is any irregularity of surface, or where the principal buildings serve to compose a picture, which is framed by nearer trees and plantations, may occasionally be rendered attractive and even striking.

The most material elements in a home view will be that it should be cheerful, sufficiently clothed with trees, (including a fair proportion of the evergreen kind,) and that it should at least have an agreeable and varied middle distance.

The crea

tion of a foreground is nearly always within the compass of art. Partial revelations of a hilly distance will be an additional recommendation. Water in some form is almost essential to a perfect landscape. And arable land, within the nearer range of vision, is objectionable, as looking cold and harsh in winter.

11. The principal aspect of a house, like that of the garden, should be as nearly as possible south-east. This will allow of the entrance being on the north-west side, the breakfast-room or library having a south-east aspect, the drawing-room with a south-east and a south-west window, and the dining-room looking north-east or north-west, which is perhaps the best arrangement. If the kitchen and offices be on the ground-floor, they can be kept on the north-east side of the house, where the yard will also be situated, and from which last there should be a communication with the kitchen-garden.

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