Sixthly. View from the house. Although, with many, the views from a house form the first consideration, yet I am not so infatuated with landscape as to prefer it to any of the objects already enumerated. Perhaps, a natural habit of cheerfulness operates too powerfully on my mind; but I have ever considered the view of trees and lawns only, as creating a certain degree of gloom, which, I am convinced, is oftener felt than acknowledged by the possessors of places admired for their solitary grandeur. We are apt to lament the desertion of such family mansions for the residence of London, in winter, and watering places in summer; but we should consider the difference betwixt the country gentleman's seat, when only separated from his neighbours and dependants by court-yards or garden-walls, and the modern fashion of placing the house in the middle of a park, at a distance from all mankind, "Where only grass and foliage we obtain, To mark the flat, insipid, waving plain; Which, wrapt all o'er in everlasting green, Make one dull, vapid, smooth, and tranquil scene." KNIGHT'S Landscape. To this might be added, that, "Now not one moving object must appear Except the owner's bullocks, sheep, or deer, As if his landscape were all made to eat; And yet he shudders at a crop of wheat."
