Houses are built to live in, and not to look on; therefore let use be
preferred before uniformity, except where both may be had. Leave the
goodly fabrics of houses, for beauty only, to the enchanted palaces of
the poets, who build them with small cost. He that buildeth a fair house
upon an ill seat, committeth himself to prison; neither do I reckon it
an ill seat only where the air is unwholesome, but likewise where the
air is unequal; as you shall see many fine seats set upon a knap of
ground, environed with higher hills round about it, whereby the heat of
the sun is pent in, and the wind gathereth as in troughs; so as you
shall have, and that suddenly, as great diversity of heat and cold as if
you dwelt in several places. Neither is it ill air only that maketh an
ill seat, but ill ways, ill markets; and if you will consult with Momus,
ill neighbors. I speak not of many more; want of water, want of wood,
shade, and shelter, want of fruitfulness, and mixture of grounds of
several natures; want of prospect, want of level grounds, want of places
at some near distance for sports of hunting, hawking, and races; too
near the sea, or too remote; having the commodity of navigable rivers,
or the discommodity of their overflowing; too far from great cities,
which may hinder business; or too near them, which lurcheth all
provisions, and maketh every thing dear; where a man hath a great living
laid together and where he is scanted; all which, as it is impossible
perhaps to find together, so it is good to know them, and think of them,
that a man may
like as many as he can; and, if he have several dwellings, that he sod
them so, that what he wanteth in one he may find in another. Lucullus
answered Pompey well, who, when he saw his stately galleries, and rooms
so large and lightsome, in one of his houses, said, “Surely an excellent
place for summer, but how do you in winter?” Lucullus answered, “Why do
you not think me as wise as some fowls, that ever change their abode
toward the winter?”