Fig. 105. may be supposed to exhibit a portion of country, the greater part of which is to be sold by private contract, in lots as various in magnitude and form as the size and shape of the fields; or to be let on building leases. It may be supposed to have all belonged to the mansion and park a; but that, owing to death or other causes, the present owner of that park has determined to limit himself to it, and to the adjoining fields and farm-yard (b, c, d, and e). All the other fields, therefore, are to be sold or let; and we shall suppose them to have been looked over by a gentleman desirous of forming a country residence, who has fixed on the fields f, g, h, i, and j, containing in all about ten acres. Here we must notice what is a common error, often committed in the first step of forming a country residence; via. that the party (say a tradesman, a merchant, or a professional man) chooses the situation, and fixes the conditions of purchase, without consulting a surveyor; or, what is better, some friend who has a practical knowledge of soils and situations, and of what are really essential in these to the formation of a comfortable residence.

Perhaps the party who, in his want of knowledge, has rashly ventured to judge for himself, was too modest to let it be known to his friends that he intended to purchase land; or, perhaps, by keeping the matter quiet, he expected to get it somewhat cheaper; or, perhaps, one object was to prevent his friend and neighbour, Mr. A. B., from getting what he considered one of the most advantageous of the allotments. At all events, he has chosen these fields entirely on his own judgment, and, in one point of view, judiciously, because they lie very compactly in a ring fence. It is proper to mention, however, that there are situations, where, when the object is to form a country residence, compactness of outline possesses fewer advantages, and is in fact much less desirable, than an outline of great irregularity. This depends on the natural inequalities of the surface, and on the distant prospect: for example, in the plan before us, had there been a natural ridge proceeding fromf to g, and thence by k to l, terminating in a considerable hill at m, then we should have preferred these five fields to the five which lie so compactly; notwithstanding the great extent of boundary line which in the latter case there would have been to keep up, and the circumstance of the fields A, i, j, n, and o lying, as it were, in the midst of the property.

This, however, would be no disadvantage in an ornamental point of view; because we are supposing the ridge f, g, k, l, m to be far higher than the adjoining fields, and to overlook them entirely. The proprietor of such a ridge might build his house on the hill (m); have a going approach along one side of the ridge, and a returning approach along the other; the trees along both approaches being arranged so as to form foregrounds to the distant scenery, and to exclude near objects in the adjoining properties, which might be considered as not worth looking at. Along the centre of the ridge, there might be an irregular-margined avenue of turf, in the manner of the green drives at Fonthill, Goodwood, Stourhead, etc.