There is still one other objection which may, perhaps, be made by those who consider that a house in the country must not only stand in the middle of its own property, but, also, that it should be surrounded by park, or lawn, of great extent. This may be necessary to give the mock importance of space to a modern mansion, but the ancient manor-house generally stood near a public road, and derived its importance from the neighbouring village, or cottages, or pastures, rather than from the destruction of every other dwelling near it, to produce one overgrown grass-field; or, by "lawning a hundred good acres of wheat," to produce a bald naked park, dotted with starving trees, or belted and clumped with spruce firs, and larches, and Lombardy poplars.
