With respect to wooden fences, or rails, it is hardly necessary to say, that the less they are seen the better; and therefore a dark, or, as it is called, an invisible green, for those intended to be concealed, is the proper colour; perhaps there can hardly be produced a more striking example of the truth, "that whatever is cheap, is improper for decorations,” than the garish ostentation of white paint, with which, for a few shillings, a whole country may be disfigured, by milk-white gates, posts, and rails. them with admiration; and from the observations I have made on the effect of external gilding in large masses, I have often considered gilding the dome of St. Paul's as a subject worthy of this nation's wealth and glory. This idea will, I doubt not, excite ridicule from those who have never observed or studied the wonderful, the pleasing, the unexpected, and harmonious effect of gilding on smooth surfaces. CHAPTER XII. Architecture and Gardening inseparable-Some Inquiry into the Forms and Arrangements of different Eras-Situation and Arrangement of MICHEL GROVE-Singular Character of the House-Change in Customs and Manners alters Uses of Rooms-An extended Plan-Example, GARNONS-A contracted Plan-Example, BRENTRY HILL, &c. IT has been objected to my predecessor, Mr. Brown, that he fancied himself an architect. The many good houses built under his direction, prove him to have been no mean proficient in an art, the practice of which he found, from experience, to be inseparable from landscape gardening: he had not early studied those necessary, but inferior branches of architecture, better known, perhaps, to the practical carpenter than to Palladio himself: yet, from his access to the principal palaces of this country, and his intercourse with men of genius and science, added to his natural quickness of perception, and his habitual correctness of observation, he became acquainted with the higher requisites of the art, relating to form, to proportion, to character, and, above all, to arrangement.* * Mr. Brown's fame as an architect seems to have been eclipsed by his celebrity as a landscape gardener, he being the only professor of one art, while he had many jealous competitors in the other. But when I consider the number of excellent works in architecture designed and executed by him, it becomes an act of injustice to his memory to record, that, if he was superior to all in what related to his own peculiar profession, he was inferior to none in what related to the comfort, convenience, taste, and propriety of design, in the several mansions and other buildings which he planned. Having occasionally visited and admired many of them, I was induced to make some inquiries concerning his works as an architect, and, with the permission of Mr. Holland, to whom, at his decease, he left his drawings, I insert the following list :— For the Earl of Coventry. Croome, house, offices, lodges, church, &c., 1751. The same. Spring Hill, a new place. Earl of Donegal. Fisherwick, house, offices, and bridge. Earl of Exeter. Burleigh, addition to the house, new offices, &c. Lord Viscount Palmerston. Broadland, considerable additions. These branches of architecture are attainable without much early practice, as we have seen exemplified in the designs of certain noblemen, who, like Lord Burlington, had given their attention to this study. A knowledge of arrangement, or disposition, is, of all others, the most useful : and this must extend to external appendages as well as to internal accommodation. Robert Drummond, Esq. Cadlands, a new house, offices, farm build ings, &c. Earl of Bute. Christ Rowland Holt, Esq. Church, a bathing-place. Corsham, the picture gallery, &c. Redgrave, large new house, 1765. Lord Willoughby de Broke. Compton, a new chapel. Earl Harcourt. Nuneham, alterations and new offices. Earl of Warwick. Warwick Castle, added to the entrance. Lord Cobham. Stowe, several of the buildings in the garden. Ugbrooke, a new house. To this list Mr. Holland added: "I cannot be indifferent to the fame "and character of so great a genius, and am only afraid lest, in giving the "annexed account, I should not do him justice. No man that I ever met "with understood so well what was necessary for the habitation of all "ranks and degrees of society; no one disposed his offices so well, set his "buildings on such good levels, designed such good rooms, or so well "provided for the approach, for the drainage, and for the comfort and "conveniences of every part of a place he was concerned in. This he did "without ever having had one single difference or dispute with any of his "employers. He left them pleased, and they remained so as long as he "lived; and when he died, his friend, Lord Coventry, for whom he had "done so much, raised a monument at Croome to his memory.' Such is the testimony of one of the most eminent and experienced architects of the present time; and, in a letter to me from the Earl of Coventry, written at Spring Hill, his lordship thus mentions Mr. Brown : "I certainly held him very high as an artist, and esteemed him as a "most sincere friend. In spite of detraction, his works will ever speak for "him. I write from a house which he built for me, which, without any "pretension to architecture, is, perhaps, a model for every internal and "domestic convenience. I may be partial to my place at Croome, which "was entirely his creation, and, I believe, originally, as hopeless a spot as any in the island." I will conclude this tribute to the memory of my predecessor, by transcribing the last stanza of his epitaph, written by Mr. Mason, and which records, with more truth than most epitaphs, the private character of this truly great man :— “But know that more than genius slumbers here: Virtues were his which art's best powers transcend; And weep the christian, husband, father, friend." This knowledge cannot be acquired without observing and comparing various houses under various circumstances; not occasionally only, but the architect must be in the habit of living much in the country, and with the persons for whom he is to build; by which alone he can know their various wants with respect to comfort as well as to appearance, otherwise he will, like an ordinary builder, be satisfied in shewing his skill, by compressing the whole of his house and offices under one compact roof, without considering aspect, views, approaches, gardens, or even the shape of the ground on which the house is to be built. It is impossible to fix or describe the situation applicable to a house, without, at the same time, describing the sort of house applicable to the situation. This is so evident, that it scarcely requires to be pointed out; yet I have often witnessed the absurdity of designs for a house where the builder had never seen the situation; I have, therefore, long been compelled to make architecture a branch of my own profession.* Having occasionally observed the various modes by which large houses and their appendages have been connected, at various periods, it may not be uninteresting if I attempt to describe them, by reference to the annexed plans. No. 1 [fig. 97]. The earliest form of houses, or, rather, of palaces, in the country, prior to the reign of Elizabeth, consisted of apartments built round a large square court. These were formerly either castles or abbeys, and often received all their light from the inner courts; but, when afterwards converted into habitations, windows were opened on the outside of the building. The views from a window were of little Before I had the advantage of my eldest son's assistance in this department, I met with continual difficulties. I will mention one instance only, which occurred to me some years ago. Having been consulted respecting the situation for a villa, to be built near the metropolis, I fixed the precise spot, and marked the four corners of the house with stakes upon the ground, proposing that the best rooms should command the best views, and most suitable aspects; but, not having any consultation with the architect, I was afterwards surprised to find my position of the four corners of the house strictly observed; but, to accommodate the site to his previously settled plan on paper, the chimneys were placed where I had supposed the windows should be, to command the finest views, and the windows, alas! looked into a stable court. consequence at a time when glass was hardly transparent, and in many of the ancient castles the small lozenge panes were glazed with coloured glass, or painted with the armorial bearings, which admitted light without any prospect. Perhaps there is no form better calculated for convenience of habitation, than a house consisting of one or more of these courts, provided the dimensions are such as to admit free circulation of air, because, in such a house, the apartments are all easily connected with each other, and may have a passage of communication for servants from every part. Of this kind are the old palaces at Hampton Court and St. James's, of Penshurst and Knowle in Kent, Warwick Castle, and various other ancient mansions. No. 2 [fig. 98]. Houses of the next form I consider as of later date, although, from the various subsequent alterations, it is difficult to define their original shapes: they seem to have had one side of the quadrangle opened, and thus the line of communication being cut off, this sort of house becomes less commodious in proportion to the length of its projecting sides. Of this description were COBHAM HALL and CASHIOBURY, to both which have been judiciously added square courts of offices, under the direction of Mr. James Wyatt. No. 3 [fig. 99], is a form introduced in the reign of James I., with the quadrangle so small, that it is often damp and dark; of this kind are CREWE, HILL HALL, GAYHURST, and CULFORD; although the latter has been modernised and changed to the form, No. 7 [fig. 103]. Houses of this shape may sometimes be greatly improved by covering the inner |