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there is internally betwixt the hall or entrance, and the several apartments
to which it leads. If the
hall be too large or too small, too mean or too much ornamented for the style
of the house, there is a
manifest incongruity in the architecture, by which good taste will be offended;
but if the hall be so
situated as not to connect well with the several apartments to which it ought
to lead, it will then be
defective in point of convenience. So it is with respect to an approach :-it
ought to be conve-
nient, interesting, and in strict harmony with the character and situation
of the mansion to which it
belongs.
'COBHAM HALL.] There seems to be as much absurdityincarrying anapproachround,
toinclude
those objects which do not naturally fall within its reach, as there was
formerly in cutting through
an hill, to obtain a straight line pointing to the hall door. A line of red
gravel across a lawn, is apt
to offend, by cutting it into parts, and destroying the unity of verdure,
so pleasing to the
'eye: but I have in some places seen the aversion of showing a road carried
to such a length, that a
gap has been dug in the lawn, by way of road; and, in order to hide it, the
approach to a palace
must be made along a ditch. In other places, I have seen what is called a
grass approach, which is
a broad, hard road, thinly covered with bad verdure, or even moss, to hide
it from the sight; and
thus in a dusky evening, after wandering about the park in search of a road,
we suddenly find our-
selves upon grass, at the door of the mansion, without any appearance of
mortals ever having before
approached its solitary entrance.
Thus do improvers seem to have mistaken the most obvious meaning of an approach,
which is
simply this-A ROAD TO THE HOUSE. If that road be greatly circuitous, no one
will use it when a much