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APPROACH. 1
extent, except that it is not quite the shortest road from the gates;
but as the shortest road may not be the best line to adopt, be-
cause superior benefits may result from a different course, it
must be yielded.
The entrance should be so conspicuously placed that the visitor
shall not seem to pass the house before he obtains a sight of the
lodge or gates-nor should he from any other circumstances be
in doubt that he has missed his way, and as it is desirable that the
grounds should escape the appearance of too great limitation, it
is advantageous that the road should exhibit so much of its line
as will assure the visitor that the grounds are of an extent pro-
portionate to the building of which he has had already a distant
view, and which should not be visible from the gates, because
it would at once define the distance, more usefully left to be
discovered in future; and here the form of ground or the plantation
should screen the landscape, that it may not be overlooked.
In its progress towards the house, the road should not skirt
the boundary, because by doing so it demonstrates limitation;
and it ought not to divide the pasture into similar quantities,
but pass so near the one side as to escape the first error, givin-
to the greater portion all the benefit of contrast.  The road
should be judiciously supported by occasional pla1Itations, to
prevent the nakedness which is otherwise offensive, and its line
should be curved, because the most pleasing, as it produces
greater variety of scene than a straight one, as it is traversed
and if the ground be rising, it is also the most natural, for we
always attempt to ascend the hill by the easiest means.
The house havin- been already view(ed, it should be concealed
as near approached, until arrived at the most favourable point
it may be comiimanded under all the imposing circumstances
of its perspective: here it should burst at once upon the sig~lt,
85