Page:An Encyclopædia of Cottage, Farm, and Villa Architecture and Furniture.djvu/817

 BEAU IDE4L OF AN ENGLISH VILLA. 793 am persuaded, no important mansion can be either picturesque or cheerful. Now, though I admit that some of the appendages to our ancient residences are inconsistent with present habits ; yet there are many which might be retained without inconvenience, and with great advantage as to general effect. Thus, terraces and aixhitectural gardens are of this description, and are particularly ornamental. At that end of the villa, there- fore, which contains the drawing-room and library, with the saloon between them, I would form a spacious terrace, with a handsome balustrade supporting urns at proper intervals ; the ends of the terrace in some projecting form, one of which would be seen as you approached the house, and would miite with a low ornamental wall enclosing the garden from the park. Opposite to a door in the saloon should be a flight of steps descending to the garden, across which should be a broad walk ending with a stone seat built in the garden wall, immediately opposite to the saloon door. Another principal walk should cut the above at right angles ; and at the intersection I would place a marble basin and fountain : this walk should terminate at one end with a temple or conservatory in the shubbery under the hill, and at the other with a rich gateway leading to the park. The garden I would divide by broad gravel walks into squares of turf, on which should be beds of flowers and shrubs, and an urn or statue at the corner of each square. Beyond the garden, the pleasure-gromid should extend behind the house to the kitchen-garden, and, communicating with walks in the woody hill which backs the whole, be a substitute for the wilderness which was the ordinary appendage to an ancient mansion house. As a substitute for the bowling-green, which was fonnerly indispens- able, I would have a ground for archery, with its proper butts and seats ; it might be made highly ornamental, and would be introduced with good efl^ect at a short distance from the house. The remaining outward embellishment of an old residence is, perhaps, the most inconsistent with the habits of modern life : this was, a court-yard surrounded by a high wall before the principal front. Opposite to the porch was usually a handsome gateway, from which a paved walk led to the house. It appears from a drawing, still preserved, that a large court of this description was originally before the principal front of Longleat, adorned with a handsome gateway, and two fountains ; and it would improve the appearance of that princely edifice if it had now something of the kind, instead of the bare turf at present before it. The objections to the court are, that it excludes the view, makes the house gloomy, and prevents a carriage-approach to the house, without which no residence can be now complete. I think, however, that this ornamental appendage might be so modified as to be no inconvenience in these respects ; and propriety suggests to us that the entrance should be protected by an enclosure, from the nuisances occasioned by cattle in the park. I woidd, therefore, retain the court, which might be either square or semicircular. Supposing it the latter, I would enclose it with a low wall, which could be ornamented in various ways ; having opposite the porch an arch, or lofty gate-piers, adorned with arms, &c. The wall might be accom- modated to the height of the piers. Within the court a carriage drive should wind round a circle of turf, on which might be compartments of low shrubs, with urns or sculptures intermixed, and in the centre a fountain, or obelisk supporting a lamp. A square coui-t might be adopted, with a gateway in two of the sides, leaving the view unbroken in front ; and even a few obelisks or statues might be placed around the entrance, to vary the sameness of the level green lawn which is now a substitute for the ancient court. But, if managed as above described, the court, so far from being an inconvenience, would give a richness to the approach ; the view in front would not be interrupted ; and the ornamental gate piers would, in most cases, give an interest to the foreground of the landscape, which we look for in vain upon a broad expanse of turf. Assisted by these embellishments, the villa would be in keeping with the surrounding scenery. The stables and oflSces at one end of the house would balance the terrace and parterre at the other ; and in front would be the court. The whole, if properly mingled with groups of cedars, cypress, ilex, &c., would form a composition striking even to the ignorant, and, I hope, not uninteresting to the more fastidious eye of the painter and man of taste. 1680. r^e Porc/i, in an old English mansion, was commonly much enriched with sculptured ornaments, heraldic devices, &c. ; as I imagine, because the stranger is supposed to observe it carefully, while he is waiting to be admitted into the house. I would ascend to the porch by a flight of stone steps, to give dignity to the house, and an idea of drj-ness : it should be floored, as the hall, with a pavement of stone ; the ceiling should also be much enriched, and the door and doorway highly ornamented, be- cause exposed to minute examination. As you are supposed to wait for i few minutes in the porch, there should be a seat on each side, on which servants might rest while in waiting for their masters. The porch is the proper place for the door-mats ; the scrapers being at the foot of the steps, and outside the porch should be a bell-pull, besides that at the court-gate ; since, if the latter were rung on entering the court, the 4 T