Remarks. In consequence of the undulations of the surface in the grounds at Mount Grove, and their extending much farther in length than in breadth, there is a very considerable variety in the interior views. This will be readily credited, when we state that the walk in the avenue A is nearly 50 ft. higher than the walk at B, and higher still than the lower side of the frame-ground, from v to 30 in fig. 2. The adjoining grounds, both to the right and left, are gardens of the same kind, well wooded; and when this is taken into consideration, combined with the extent and variety of the distant scenery, it will readily be conceived that Mount Grove is a very beautiful place. That it contains every domestic convenience suitable for the style of living of a man of wealth and hospitality is evident from the description of the house, kitchen, and stable offices: and the frame-ground contains a pinery, vinery, and peach-house, and abundance of frames and pits; which, under the care of a very intelligent gardener, Mr. Alexander, supply the family with all the principal garden luxuries; as the kitchen-garden, and the dairy, and poultry-yard, do with those articles of domestic consumption which are rarely to be procured in perfection so near London. The two great sources of beauty at Mount Grove are, as we have already observed, the undulation of the surface, and the distant prospect; and they are the more valuable, as they are rarely found combined in suburban villas in the neighbourhood of London. A small place on a flat surface can very rarely boast of any distant prospect whatever; and, too often, the proprietor is obliged to be content with a hard edgy line of boundary plantation; or, if he should not be hemmed in on every side by houses, he may form breaks in his boundary line, so as to let in portions of such scenery as there may be without. No view from any place can be complete, in which the distant scenery does not form a considerable part; and in which it does not on the one hand harmonise with the foreground, and on the other blend with the horizon, or rise into the atmosphere in the form of distant mountains, and thus be comparatively lost in the clouds. However varied and beautiful the grounds of a residence may be within themselves, they will never afford full satisfaction to the mind, unless they include a portion of distant scenery. The reason is, without a portion of distance, more or less, the view cannot form a whole. To do this in the case of landscape, there must be one portion of the scene, in which there is no limit to the eye, but the horizon. But on this subject more hereafter. There are many suburban villas on flat surfaces, where the exterior country would form a tolerable distance, provided it could be seen from the principal floor of the house; but, as the house is very frequently built without much reference to the future effect of the grounds, the error of not raising the living-floor considerably above the surface is undiscovered till it is too late. We regret to observe that the engraver has not been so successful in his views of Mount Grove as he commonly is; a circumstance partly to be accounted for, from the difficulty in representing on wood that aerial perspective which is necessary to give distance, more especially where a great many objects are crowded together in the same view.
