A house of this kind should never stand in vulgar and familiar contact
with the highway, but at a distance from it of one hundred to a thousand
yards; or even, if the estate on which it is built be extensive, a much
greater distance. Breadth of ground between the highway and the dwelling
adds dignity and character to its appearance. An ample lawn, or a
spreading park, well shaded with trees, should lay before it, through
which a well-kept avenue leads to its front, and most frequented side.
The various offices and buildings of the farm itself, should be at a
respectable distance from it, so as not to interfere with its proper
keeping as a genteel country residence. Its occupant is not to be
supposed as under the necessity of toiling with his daily laborers in
the fields, and therefore, although he may be strictly a man of
business, he has sufficient employment in planning his work, and
managing his estate through a foreman, in the various labor-occupations
of the estate. His horse may be at his door in the earliest morning
hours, that he may inspect his fields, and give timely directions to his
laborers, or view his herds, or his flocks, before his breakfast hour;
or an early walk may take him to his stables, his barns, or to see that
his previous directions are executed.
The various accommodation appurtenant to the dwelling, makes ample
provision for the household convenience of the family, and the main
business of the farm may be at some distance, without inconvenience to
the owner's every-day affairs. Consequently, the indulgence of a
considerable degree of ornament may be given, in the surroundings of his
dwelling, which the occupant of a less extensive estate would neither
require, nor his circumstances warrant. A natural forest of stately
trees, properly thinned out, is the most appropriate spot on which to
build a house of this character. But that not at hand, it should be set
off with plantations of forest trees, of the largest growth, as in
keeping with its own liberal dimensions. A capacious kitchen garden
should lead off from the rear apartments, well stocked with all the
family vegetables, and culinary fruits, in their proper seasons. A
luxuriant fruit-garden may flank the least frequented side of the house.
Neat and tasteful flower beds may lie beneath the windows of the rooms
appropriated to the leisure hours of the family, to which the smaller
varieties of shrubbery may be added, separated from the chief lawn, or
park, only by a wire fence, or a simple railing, such as not to cut up
and _checker_ its simple and dignified surface; and all these shut in on
the rear from the adjoining fields of the farm by belts of large
shrubbery closely planted, or the larger orchards, thus giving it a
style of its own, yet showing its connection with the pursuits of the
farm and its dependence upon it.
These various appointments, however, may be either carried out or
restricted, according to the requirements of the family occupying the
estate, and the prevailing local taste of the vicinity in which it is
situated; but no narrow or stingy spirit should be indicated in the
general plan or in its execution. Every appointment connected with it
should indicate a liberality of purpose in the founder, without which
its effect is painfully marred to the eye of the man of true taste and
judgment. Small yards, picketed in for small uses, have no business in
sight of the grounds in front, and all minor concerns should be thrown
into the rear, beyond observation from the main approach to the
dwelling. The trees that shade the entrance park, or lawn, should be
chiefly forest trees, as the oak, in its varieties, the elm, the maple,
the chestnut, walnut, butternut, hickory, or beech. If the soil be
favorable, a few weeping willows may throw their drooping spray around
the house; and if exotic, or foreign trees be permitted, they should
take their position in closer proximity to it than the natural forest
trees, as indicating the higher care and cultivation which attaches to
its presence. The Lombardy poplar, albeit a tree of disputed taste with
modern planters, we would now and then throw in, not in stiff and formal
rows, as guarding an avenue, but occasionally in the midst of a group of
others, above which it should rise like a church spire from amidst a
block of contiguous houses--a cheerful relief to the monotony of the
rounder-headed branches of the more spreading varieties. If a stream of
water meander the park, or spread into a little pond, trees which are
partial to moisture should shadow it at different points, and low, water
shrubs should hang over its border, or even run into its margin. Aquatic
herbs, too, may form a part of its ornaments, and a boat-house, if such
a thing be necessary, should, under the shade of a hanging tree of some
kind, be a conspicuous object in the picture. An overhanging rock, if
such a thing be native there, may be an object of great attraction to
its features, and its outlet may steal away and be hid in a dense mass
of tangled vines and brushwood. The predominating, _natural_ features of
the place should be _cultivated_, not rooted out, and metamorphosed into
something foreign and unfamiliar. It should, in short, be _nature_ with
her _hair combed_ out straight, flowing, and graceful, instead of
pinched, puffed, and curling--a thing of luxuriance and beauty under the
hand of a master.
The great difficulty with many Americans in getting up a new place of
any considerable extent is, that they seem to think whatever is common,
or natural in the features of the spot must be so changed as to show,
above all others, their own ingenuity and love of expense in fashioning
it to their peculiar tastes. Rocks must be sunk, or blasted, trees
felled, and bushes grubbed, crooked water-courses straightened--the
place gibbeted and put into stocks; in fact, that their own boasted
handiwork may rise superior to the wisdom of Him who fashioned it in his
own good pleasure; forgetting that a thousand points of natural beauty
upon the earth on which they breathe are
"When unadorned, adorned the most;"
and our eye has been frequently shocked at finding the choicest gems of
nature sacrificed to a wanton display of expense in perverting, to the
indulgence of a mistaken fancy, that, which, with an eye to truth and
propriety, and at a trifling expense, might have become a spot of
abiding interest and contentment.