Page:An Encyclopædia of Cottage, Farm, and Villa Architecture and Furniture.djvu/795

 PUINCIPLES FOR DESIGNING VILLUS. 771 been almost invariably resorted to. We do not object to these fences at a proper distance from the house ; that is, at such a distiince as to render it unnecessary for them to be made architectural appendages for connecting the house with the grounds; neither should we object to the wire fence in front of the house, in the case of cottages and cottage villas, where the house, from its smaller dimensions and picturesque low form, 'tilends with the scenery, without the necessity of architectural appendages. In the case of all villas of any magnitude, however, we consider the architectural accompaniments of terrace walls, gateways, alcoves, stone seats, steps, pedestals, urns, and other mural and sculptural ornaments, essentially requisite to prevent the incongruity so ably exposed by Mr. Hope, of " launching from the threshold of the symmetric mansion, in the most abrupt manner, into a scene wholly composed of the most unsymmetric and desultory forms of mere nature." " These forms," he adds, " are totally out of character with those of the mansion, whatever may be its style of Architecture and furnishing." With him, we desire to surround the house with a garden, into which " the cluster of highly adorned and sheltered apartments that composes the mansion may, in the first instance, shoot out, as it were, into certain more or less extended ramifications of arcades, porticoes, terraces, parterres, treillages, avenues, and other such still splendid embellishments of art, calcu- lated, by their architectural and measured forms, at once to ofter a striking and varied contrast with, and a dignified and comfortable transition to, the undulating and rural features of the more extended, distant, and exposed boundaries ; before, in the second instance, through another link, and a still farther continuance of the same gradation of lines and forms, the limits of the private demesne are made, in their turn, by means of their less artificial and more desultory appearance (increasing with their distance from the house), to blend equally harmoniously with the still ruder outlines of the property of the public at large." An eloquent writer on this subject, in the Gardeiier's Magazirte, after objecting to the general incongruity between the English villa and its garden, on the same principles as iNIr. Hope, observes, " We should condescend to borrow from our neighbours on the Continent some of that architectural taste in gardening in which many of them have so much excelled ; we must engraft upon our own romantic harshnesses .■ajmething that will accord better with the equipment of the interior of our residences ; something like furnitin-e and ornament ; and not leap from our windows into jungles and steppes, and wildernesses, where the lion and the panther would be more at home than the ' lady with her silken sheen.' We must, in fact, adapt our gardens, those, at least, which adjoin the house, to the building, and make them a part of it ; appropriate, and such as, in the times when those buildings were erected, were considered suited to each particular class. If we take a review of our country residences, we shall find them to be, or to have been, either the baronial castle, or the monastic and conventual houses, such as, at the dissolution of the monasteries, were granted to the great and powerfiil of their time, of which the greater part of many now remain, and are private dwellings ; or the Elizabethan and Inigo Jones buildings ; or the great square edifices, with projecting roofs, of William and INIary's time ; or the PaUadian palace and villa. To give these buildings gardens appropriate to their individual styles and eras of build- ing would not only add truth and consistency to the character of each place, — an object hitherto sadly neglected, although generally allowed to be desirable, — but it would give also to the possessor an opportimity of introducing that description of garden ground which I contend to be best adapted to our climate. Each stj-le of building would give us permission, as it were, to ornament, to furnish highly our gardens, to decorate them with masonry ; to place statues, and vases, and balustrades, and steps about them ; and to enrich them with that most charming of all garden ornaments, the terrace : all of which rich accompaniments, by carrying the eye from the interior ornaments of the chambers to the garden, would in a manner so connect our gardens with our houses, as to make them, what all, I believe, would wish them to be, a pleasurable part of them. The want of colour, so necessary to a clieerfulness of scene, would, at those seasons when flowers have ceased to bloom, be compensated for by the lights which would be constantly falling upon and playing about the architectural ornaments j and that court- ing of sunshine, which is so desirable, would be generally gained." 1G50. Rules for laying out Architectural Gardens, the same writer observes, might be given v»-ithout much difficulty. Each of the above-mentioned eras of building villas or mansions admits of architectural ornaments ; " the taste in their disposition, and the skill in their execution, being determined by the style of the individual building. The terrace, or succession of terraces, of the baronial castle will not require the same orna- ment as the monastic terrace ; nor will that, again, be so richly or gorgeously adorned as the PaUadian terrace : and let it here be observed, by the way, that by a terrace is not always implied that elevated sjiot whence a commanding and distant view is obtained (a misconception of this description of ornament to a building entertained by many) ; but any raised, straight, and broad, paved or gravelled walk, on a level, running parallel